Biobank Research Group (Affiliated Group)
The Biobank Research Group operates within the Population Diagnostics Center at Łukasiewicz – PORT and collaborates with P4Health as an affiliated group. Its work underpins the Clinical and Biobanking Platform (P1), which connects P4Health’s research groups to clinical material, patient cohorts, and biobanking infrastructure.
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The Łukasiewicz – PORT Biobank is among the largest repositories of human biological material in Poland. It collects, processes, and stores samples from population-wide studies and disease-specific research programs, covering oncology, metabolic disorders, and further disease areas. The biobank operates under OECD guidelines and international quality and ethical standards, with samples stored at −80°C and −150°C in a continuously monitored system.
The group’s research focuses on the biological characterization of collected samples—particularly spatial phenotyping of tissue using multiplex in situ staining technologies—and on understanding the tumor microenvironment in cancer types including breast cancer and head and neck cancers.
As the national node (PNN) of BBMRI.pl and a member of BBMRI-ERIC, the group contributes to biobanking policy, standardization, and guidelines at the national and European level.
Meet our team
Dr. hab. Patrycja Gazińska
Dr. hab. Patrycja Gazińska holds a PhD in agricultural science from SGGW Warsaw (2006) and a habilitation in medical and health sciences (2024), based on a cycle of publications on histopathological assessment of breast cancer and its microenvironment. Before joining Łukasiewicz – PORT, she served as Head of the Experimental and Digital Pathology Team at the Institute of Cancer Research in London (2018–2021), as a manager in AstraZeneca’s Oncology R&D division (2020–2021), and as researcher and senior scientist at King’s College London (2008–2018). She has led the Biobank Research Group at Łukasiewicz – PORT since 2022 and serves as Director of the Population Diagnostics Center.
Dr. Roman Małachowski
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Dr. Klara Zalewska
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Dr. Joanna Gluza
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Artur Nieszporek
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Research focus
The group’s scientific work centers on digital and spatial pathology applied to oncology. Core research questions include how the lymph node microenvironment influences prognosis in breast cancer, what immune cell landscapes characterize chemotherapy-resistant tumors, and what role exosomes play in immune evasion in head and neck cancers.
Dr. Gazińska leads multiple active projects funded by the Medical Research Agency (ABM), the National Science Centre (NCN), and the European Commission, including participation in international clinical trials.
Services
The Biobank Research Group provides services to academic researchers and industry: biological sample collection and storage, provision of samples for biomedical research, consultation on research project design, and assistance with bioethics applications.