Postdoc Profiles Home Research Postdocs Meet our Postdocs Postdoctoral scholars play an integral role in advancing the research goals of the CTVR. Our current postdocs are engaged in a wide range of research scanning human clinical studies, pre-clinical animal investigations, cell biological and pharmacological experimentation, and structural biology of medicines binding to their targets. They also play important roles in developing manuscripts, training students, and contributing to research proposal preparation. Postdoctoral scholars in the CTVR are strongly encouraged to seek out independent funding opportunities as a means to enhance their future career opportunities. Roman Smidak, PhD Dr. Smidak is directly involved in the study of a crucial limitation of gene editing technologies focused on virus-free delivery of functional proteins to restore visual function. Dr. Smidak is pursuing the development of novel protein delivery strategy without the need of heterologous gene expression as a viable alternative to viral-based approach. This study is of pivotal importance for translational application of base editors and exploiting their potential as very effective gene editing tools in clinical settings. The outcomes are expected to be highly beneficial for the field of ophthalmology as well as the treatment of genetic disorders. Contact Dr. Smidak Aleksander Tworak, PhD Dr. Tworak’s research interests focus on the biology of the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE), a monolayer of post-mitotic cells lining the back of the vertebrate eye. The critical role of the RPE for the health and proper function of photoreceptors and the entire retina has been well established and described, and includes: outer blood-retina barrier function, nutrient trafficking and delivery, involvement in the visual cycle, absorption of light, as well as photoreceptor outer segment removal through the daily phagocytosis process. Despite extensive knowledge about all of those processes, many of their molecular details remain poorly understood, while their dysfunction is associated with the development of several retinal diseases, including age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in the US. Dr. Tworak’s research focuses in particular on the photoreceptor outer segment phagocytosis and subsequent recycling processes occurring in the RPE cells, as well as the visual pigment regeneration pathway involving the retinal G protein coupled receptor (RGR) activity. Contact Dr. Tworak Marco Bassetto, PhD Dr. Bassetto developed his PhD in the field of ocular drug delivery. His early research aimed at establishing methods to enhance permeation of therapeutics within the eye after non-invasive, topical application. Indeed, most drugs are incompatible with the treatment of ocular diseases because they display unfavorable pharmacokinetic and/or pharmacodynamic profiles. Furthermore, invasive intraocular injections are the only way to achieve therapeutic concentrations of drugs inside the eye. The pediatric population is exceptionally vulnerable to retinal diseases because the risk of permanent retinal damage due to the treatment often exceeds the potential benefits of the therapy. Thus, most of these patients are not treated. Dr. Bassetto is among the recipient of the 2022 pediatric ophthalmology career-starter research grant from the Knight Templar Eye Foundation to pursue the goal of establishing a universal method to improve the efficiency of retinal targeting of any eyedrop. Dr. Bassetto is also focusing on the study of retinoids flux within the retina in the healthy and disease states. Although photoreceptor’s function converges in the need for a continuous supply of 11-cis-retinal to sustain visual function over time, recent data suggest that rods and cones may use different enzymatic pathways to recycle all-trans-retinal back to 11-cis-retinal. By using genetically engendered animal models, Dr. Bassetto is determining the contributions of cell-specific pools of macromolecules in the regeneration of 11-cis-retinal within cones photoreceptors. Contact Dr. Bassetto Rafal Holubowicz, PhD Dr. Holubowicz is interested in genome augmentation using derivatives of CRISPR-Cas9, namely base editors (CBE, ABE) and prime editors (PE), in the context of retinal diseases. Currently, delivery of base and prime editors relies on viral vectors, which may cause prolonged expression of these enzymes and toxic accumulation of the off-target genome editing products. Ribonucleoprotein particles (RNPs) are an alternative, which due to their shorter lifetime in the cell can repair disease-causing mutations without modifying other sites in the DNA. By inventing a way to deliver active and specific RNPs to retinal tissues, Dr. Holubowicz wants to make a foundation for novel treatments with lifelong therapeutic effects. Contact Dr. Holubowicz Dominik Lewandowski, PhD Dr. Lewandowski’s current research interests concentrate on understanding the mechanisms of retinal degenerative diseases. As a postdoc, he studied the function of adiponectin receptor 1 (AdipoR1) in the eye, a protein engaged in lipid and glucose metabolism. ADIPOR1 is one of many genes implicated in retinal degeneration, and its mutations have been associated with retinitis pigmentosa (RP) and age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Dr. Lewandowski distinguished himself by publishing an exceptionally well-researched and innovative work on AdipoR1 in the prestigious medical journal JCI Insight in 2022. His JCI Insight publication has been among the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric. It was also recognized by several science news outlets and by the director of the National Eye Institute, Dr. Michael Chiang, on his official Twitter account. Contact Dr. Lewandowski