Epigenetyka - where science meets business

National Consultant in Medical Laboratory Genetics

I graduated from the laboratory medicine course, the Faculty of Pharmacy at the Medical University of Lodz. I did my master’s degree in the Medical Genetics Department under the direction of Prof. Bogdan Kałużewski. In the same department I commenced work on my doctoral thesis “Detection of TP53 Gene Mutation with MSSCP Method in Bladder Cancer Cases”, under the Division for Doctoral Studies of the Medical University of Lodz. I defended my dissertation in 2004. I have been involved in oncological research since the beginning of my professional career. I worked on this subject realizing two scientific grants of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education. I applied the real-time PCR technique and I did the marking of the expression of selected genes involved in the development of bladder cancer. I adapted artificial neural networks and I tried to create the risk calculator for bladder cancer recurrence and progression. I also utilised Self Organising Kohonem Maps, which are a kind of independent artificial intelligence, in order to detect correlations between seemingly unrelated factors. I did part of that research in Great Britain during my international internship at Oxford University. While being there, I had a chance to work with Prof. James Catto from the University of Sheffield on the role of noncoding RNA in the process of the bladder cancer development. I have been continuing this subject in my research since then. At present, my research focuses on the role and the use of noncoding RNA (both microRNA and long noncoding RNA) in cancer diagnosis and prognosis. We carry out tests both in tumour tissue and in the so called liquid biopsy, i.e. in nucleic acids isolated from patients’ blood and urine. We utilize modern techniques, such as digital PCR and Next Generation Sequencing. The latter technique is the one which I would like to concentrate on, working with it on the large scale, mainly, I mean, RNA sequencing and analysing obtained results. My aim is also further application of results in order to adjust treatment to the genetic profile of a tumour as well as to the so called personalized medicine.

Łukasz Więch is an experienced public health practitioner with more than 15 years of experience in clinical research and extensive expertise in health care management. His professional interests include change management, management education, organizational development and ethics in clinical research.

He currently serves as Medical Director at Accelerated Enrollment Solutions, where he is responsible for the development of the organization's clinical team in Poland and the quality of ongoing research at Synexus sites. He is also a leader of health studies at Kozminski University, where he has educated more than 2,000 graduates over the years, developing their competencies in health care management and clinical research.

As a certified trainer of the advanced simulation game SysTeamsChange®, he supports managers and organizations in developing practical change management skills, particularly in the healthcare sector. He also conducts scientific research on the use of simulation games as educational tools in management processes, combining theory and practice and setting new directions in the field.

He is vice-chairman of the Council of the Health Policy Institute, actively working to shape health policy and innovation in health care.

He believes that the future of the health care system is based on education, innovation and collaboration. Working at the intersection of science, business and clinical practice, he consistently strives to create value for patients, professionals and organizations.

Prof. Maciej Banach was an Undersecretary of State at the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Republic of Poland (2010-2012), and a President of the 2nd largest hospital in Poland. - the Polish Mother's Memorial Hospital - Research Institute (PMMHRI) (2014-2021). He is a Head of Cardiovascular Research Centre at University of Zielona Gora, Head of Department of Preventive Cardiology and Lipidology at the Medical University of Lodz (MUL), and Professor Consultant at the Department of Cardiology and Congenital Diseases of Adults at the PMMHRI in Lodz, Poland. Since October 2022 he has also joined the Faculty of the Johns Hopkins Ciccarone Center for the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease as an Adjunct Professor (the Johns Hopkins Hospital is ranked as the 4th in the World's Best Hospitals 2023 by Newsweek).
He is a Secretary of the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) (2021-2024) and member of the Scientific and Health Policy Advisory Group of the FH Europe. He is a Founder and Head of the Polish Lipid Association (PoLA) (2011-), Founder of the Lipid and Blood Pressure Meta-analysis Collaboration (LBPMC) Group (2012-; www.lbpmcgroup.com) – a group of over 150 worldwide experts aimed to investigate the most important issues in the field of lipid disorders, hypertension, nutrition and cardiovascular risk, as well as the International Lipid Expert Panel (ILEP; https://ilep.eu) (2015-), which has been founded to prepare recommendations in the area of preventive cardiology in the most debatable issues that have not been covered in the existing guidelines. He is also a member of the REPROGRAM Consortium – a group of experts challenging with Covid-19 pandemic, CArdiometabolic Panel of International Experts on Syndemic COVID-19 (CAPISCO), ORCHESTRA Project – EU project dedicated to long-Covid research, and member of 2 largest worldwide databases – the Global Burden of Disease (GDB) (University of Washington, Seattle, US) and Non-Communicable Diseases Risk Factor Collaboration (NCD-RisC, Imperial College of London, UK). He is also Founder and President of the foundation – Think-Tank “Innovation for Health”, which gathers six main health research institutes and over 40 medical business representatives in Poland with main aim to make innovations in the medical area in Poland. He is a Visiting Professor of University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) and University of Medicine and Pharmacy Victor Babes in Timisoara, Romania, and University of California at Irvine (UCI).

Panel discussion Barriers to the medical diagnostics market

Arkadiusz Grądkowski, as President of The Polish Chamber of Commerce of Medical Devices POLMED since 2020, steers Poland’s foremost organisation representing medical device manufacturers and distributors. His role expanded in 2023 as a board member of MedTech Europe.  
Grądkowski’s career in healthcare includes significant contributions at The Polish Confederation Lewiatan, advising pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries and liaising with public authorities. 
Previously, he was Deputy Director in the Department of Information on Medical Devices at the Office for Registration of Medicinal Products, Medical Devices and Biocidal Products. His efforts were crucial in amending the Polish Medical Devices Act and aligning it with EU regulations. Grądkowski represented Poland at the EU Competent Authorities for Medical Devices (CAMD) meetings and worked on European Commission twinning projects in Moldova and Macedonia, focusing on medical product and device trade laws. 
Arkadiusz Grądkowski holds a Master’s degree in law from the Maria Skłodowska-Curie University in Lublin, combining legal expertise with a deep understanding of the medical devices sector. 

Discussion panel Barriers to the medical diagnostics market

From 2003, she has worked at Diagnostyka S.A., where has held the position of Deputy Sales Director. Until 2021, she was the CEO of the largest Polish net of pathology laboratories: Diagnostyka Consilio. Since 2022 she has been a vice president of the genetics laboratories: genXone S.A., Genesis sp. z o.o., Oncogene Diagnostics sp. z o.o. She holds a PhD in the biological science from the Jagiellonian University. 

Discussion panel Barriers to the medical diagnostics market

Specialist of the Notified Body, where he serves as a reviewer of in vitro diagnostic medical devices, clinical expert and auditor. Graduate of Warsaw Medical University and Medical University of Lodz. Laboratory diagnostician - specialist in medical laboratory genetics with more than a decade of experience in the field of laboratory medicine, including genetics of rare diseases, which he gained at the largest Polish clinical hospital, the University Clinical Center of WUM. Member of the Medical Genetics Team at the National Chamber of Laboratory Diagnosticians. Member of scientific societies: European Society of Human Genetics, European Society of Cardiology and Polish Society of Human Genetics.

Discussion panel Funding in the medical diagnostics market

Ph.D. Assistant professor (adjunct) at the Department of Energy Transformation at the University of Economics in Katowice. He specializes in public commercial law, European economic law, energy law, economic regulations, as well as in the infrastructure sector. Author of over 50 publications. Professionally with the energy sector. Polish delegate to the UN Climate Summits COP.

Panel discussion Funding in the medical diagnostics market

Master of Management, Master of Business Administration (MBA)

A graduate of the Faculty of Management at the Warsaw School of Economics and an MBA graduate of the Warsaw School of Economics - Medical University of Warsaw in the field of Health Protection.
Participant of training and business workshops in USA, France, Germany and Spain. Business speaker at nationwide trainings and medical congresses. For over a dozen years, he has been successfully managing entities on the health care and pharmaceutical markets, also in the field of dermatology and aesthetic medicine. Recent business success: she created from scratch and manages the Polish branch of Mesoestetic Pharma Group.

Mesoestetic Pharma Group is a Spanish pharmaceutical company with over 40 years of history, present in over 109 countries around the world. It has its own pharmaceutical factory, R&D department, including a biotechnology and biomedical engineering department using AI to create new molecules and new galenic forms of products. The company has patents protecting technologies used in their own production of cosmetics.

For over a dozen years, she has been associated with the broadly understood health care and pharmaceutical markets in business. For several years, he has been successfully introducing and managing brands on the aesthetic medicine market, working closely with the medical community. From March 2021, Managing Director in the Polish branch of the Spanish pharmaceutical and aesthetic medicine laboratory of Mesoestetic Pharma Group.

Panel discussion Funding in the medical diagnostics market

Doctor of economics in the discipline of management and quality sciences, Director of the Technology Transfer Center of the Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, CEO of the special purpose vehicle Center of Innovative Technologies PUM sp. z o. o., co-founder of spin-offs in the field of biotechnology and medicine, promoter of academic entrepreneurship, member of the Agreement of Companies Targeted and PACCT. Research and teaching employee of the University of Szczecin, creator of over 30 scientific publications, manager of scientific and teaching projects, member of research teams, conducts research in the areas of foresight methodology, strategic management, inter-organizational cooperation and technology transfer.

Panel discussion Funding in the medical diagnostics market

Investment Manager
Marcin Szczeciński is a graduate of law from the University of Lodz and the EMBA program at the Warsaw University of Technology Business School. He also studied at Utrecht University. With nearly 18 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry, he has been involved in various projects within the drug discovery field at Adamed, contributing to the portfolio development and strategy in this area. He has closely collaborated with scientists on R&D projects for new drugs, gaining insight into their specifics, regulatory requirements, and intellectual property matters. He has secured external funding for these initiatives and has been instrumental in the commercialization of drug candidates, working with clients from big, mid, and Japan pharma. In 2015, he joined Adamed's investment arm, where he is responsible for investing in startup projects addressing unmet medical needs and inefficiencies of healthcare systems.
 

Dr Tomasz K Wojdacz is a professor at Pomeranian Medical University in Szczecin, where he currently leads a research team engaged in research in the field of clinical epigenetics. The professor's professional experience includes not only scientific research, but also entrepreneurship and the commercialization of research results. He is the founder and CEO of Danish company MethylDetect ApS and Polish EPI-CAN Technologies sp. z.o.o., both commercializing intellectual properties originating from his research. Professor Wojdacz is an internationally recognized expert in epigenetic research and began his scientific work before his doctoral studies at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Center in Australia. After obtaining his doctorate, he conducted research at such centers as the Karolinska Institute in Sweden and the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies in Denmark, where he received a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship. Professor Wojdacz is also the president of the International Society of Molecular and Clinical Epienetics and a graduate of Kozminski University,  MBA.

dr hab. n med. Tomasz K. Wojdacz jest profesorem Uniwersytetu w Aarhus w Danii oraz profesorem Pomorskiego Uniwersytetu Medycznego w Szczecinie, gdzie obecnie prowadzi zespół naukowy zajmujący się badaniami w dziedzinie epigenetyki klinicznej. Prof. Tomasz K. Wojdacz jest międzynarodowym ekspertem w badaniach epigenetycznych, a swoją pracę naukową rozpoczął na długo przed studiami doktoranckimi w Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, w Australii. Po zrobieniu doktoratu prowadził badania w takich ośrodkach jak Karolinska Institute w Szwecji czy Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies w Danii, gdzie był stypendystą Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship. Prof. Tomasz K. Wojdacz jest prezesem Międzynarodowego Towarzystwa Epigenetyki Molekularnej i Klinicznej, a jego doświadczenie zawodowe to nie tylko badania naukowe, ale i komercjalizacja wyników badań. Jest jednym z założycieli i dyrektorem duńskiej firmy z międzynarodowymi operacjami (MethylDetect ApS), którą zbudował na patentach wywodzących się z jego badań naukowych. Tomasz jest też absolwentem ALK MBA dla kadry medycznej. 

LinkedIn: (2) Tomasz K Wojdacz | LinkedIn

Łukasz Więch is an experienced public health practitioner with more than 15 years of experience in clinical research and extensive expertise in health care management. His professional interests include change management, management education, organizational development and ethics in clinical research.

He currently serves as Medical Director at Accelerated Enrollment Solutions, where he is responsible for the development of the organization's clinical team in Poland and the quality of ongoing research at Synexus sites. He is also a leader of health studies at Kozminski University, where he has educated more than 2,000 graduates over the years, developing their competencies in health care management and clinical research.

As a certified trainer of the advanced simulation game SysTeamsChange®, he supports managers and organizations in developing practical change management skills, particularly in the healthcare sector. He also conducts scientific research on the use of simulation games as educational tools in management processes, combining theory and practice and setting new directions in the field.

He is vice-chairman of the Council of the Health Policy Institute, actively working to shape health policy and innovation in health care.

He believes that the future of the health care system is based on education, innovation and collaboration. Working at the intersection of science, business and clinical practice, he consistently strives to create value for patients, professionals and organizations.