University College Cork

1. Home
2. Pharmacy
3. People
4. Piotr Kowalski

‍

Biography

Dr. Kowalski is an HRB funded Emerging Investigator for Health and a Senior lecturer in advanced therapies at the School of Pharmacy, University College Cork. He received his Master’s degree in Biochemistry in 2009 from Jagiellonian University, Poland. He then moved to the Netherlands to earn his PhD from Groningen University, focusing on the development of lipid-based systems for selective delivery of siRNA to inflamed endothelium. Subsequently, he received his postdoctoral training at the Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the laboratories of Prof. Daniel Anderson and Prof. Robert Langer. His multidisciplinary research focused on engineering novel biomaterials to enable the delivery of messenger RNAs to treat inflammatory diseases, cancer, and diabetes. After his postdoc, Dr. Kowalski joined an early-stage biotechnology company, Senda Bioscience, Inc., where he gained experience in the development and commercialization of next-generation nano-medicines. Dr. Kowalski has been the recipient of several international scholarships and awards and his work resulted in a number of high-impact publications, the co-invention of several patents on RNA delivery technologies, and the creation of a US-based biotech startup (Orna therapeutic Inc.). He has recently won a highly prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Starting grant to elucidate the therapeutic potential of the new class of circular RNAs. Dr Kowalski is also member of the GENEGUT EU consortium aiming to create first-in-class oral RNA therapy. Currently he leads a diverse multidisciplinary team of five PhD students, two research assistants and one postdoc.
‍

Research Interests

I have a great interest in multidisciplinary biomedical research aimed at improving human health. My research is centered on developing Advanced Therapy Medicinal Products (ATMPs), in particular, novel clinically relevant drug delivery technologies  for parental and non-parental applications to facilitate effective nucleic acid-based therapies aimed at high medical need diseases that lack effective treatment. Current work in my group focuses on engineering RNA-based therapeutics for the treatment of sepsis, inflammatory bowel disease, and cancer. We aim to explore the therapeutic potential of RNA molecules (such as short interfering RNAs, messenger RNAs and circular RNAs) to treat and prevent multiple organ failure during sepsis by delivering these new class of RNA-based drugs to diseased cells to change the way the disease affects a patient's organs.

Key research areas:

• nanotechnology
  
• drug delivery
  
• biomaterials engineering
  
• gene therapy
  

Research metrics:

• Google scholar:  https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=7l4yRMwAAAAJ&hl=en
• ORCID: 0000-0001-8607-0189

Research Grants

	Project	Funding Body	Start Date	End Date	Award
	Synthetic circular RNA therapeutics for prevention of sepsis-associated organ failure	Horizon Europe	01-JUL-22	30-JUN-27	€1,499,946.00
	HRB Emerging Investigator Award	Health Research Board	01-MAR-20	28-MAR-24	€799,937.30
	H2020 Proposal Preparation.	Enterprise Irl	08-SEP-20	30-NOV-21	€14,308.00

‍

Publications

‍

Book Chapters

	Year	Publication
	(2023)	'Biomaterials and Biopolymers' Kumar, Parveen and Palmiero, Umberto Capasso and Kowalski, Piotr S. (2023) 'Biomaterials and Biopolymers' In: AAPS Introductions in the Pharmaceutical Sciences. Switzerland: Springer International Publishing. [DOI] [Details]

‍

Peer Reviewed Journals

	Year	Publication
	(2024)	'Nebulised delivery of RNA formulations to the lungs: From aerosol to cytosol' Neary MT;Mulder LM;Kowalski PS;MacLoughlin R;Crean AM;Ryan KB; (2024) 'Nebulised delivery of RNA formulations to the lungs: From aerosol to cytosol'. Journal Of Controlled Release, 366 [DOI] [Details]
	(2023)	'Design of lipid-based nanoparticles for delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids' Mendonça MCP;Kont A;Kowalski PS;O'Driscoll CM; (2023) 'Design of lipid-based nanoparticles for delivery of therapeutic nucleic acids'. Drug Discovery Today, 28 (3) [DOI] [Details]
	(2023)	'BMPR1A promotes ID2-ZEB1 interaction to suppress excessive endothelial to mesenchymal transition' Lee HW;Adachi T;Pak B;Park S;Hu X;Choi W;Kowalski PS;Chang CH;Clapham KR;Lee A;Papangeli I;Kim J;Han O;Park J;Anderson DG;Simons M;Jin SW;Chun HJ; (2023) 'BMPR1A promotes ID2-ZEB1 interaction to suppress excessive endothelial to mesenchymal transition'. Cardiovascular research, 119 (3) [DOI] [Details]
	(2021)	'Highly Photoluminescent Nitrogen- and Zinc-Doped Carbon Dots for Efficient Delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 and mRNA' Hasanzadeh, A;Radmanesh, F;Hosseini, ES;Hashemzadeh, I;Kiani, J;Nourizadeh, H;Naseri, M;Fatahi, Y;Chegini, F;Madjd, Z;Beyzavi, A;Kowalski, PS;Karimi, M (2021) 'Highly Photoluminescent Nitrogen- and Zinc-Doped Carbon Dots for Efficient Delivery of CRISPR/Cas9 and mRNA'. Bioconjugate Chemistry, 32 :1875-1887 [DOI] [Details]
	(2020)	'Reduction of the therapeutic dose of silencing RNA by packaging it in extracellular vesicles via a pre-microRNA backbone' Reshke, Ryan and Taylor, James A and Savard, Alexandre and Guo, Huishan and Rhym, Luke H and Kowalski, Piotr S and Trung, My and Campbell, Charles and Little, Wheaton and Anderson, Daniel G and Gibbings, Derrick (2020) 'Reduction of the therapeutic dose of silencing RNA by packaging it in extracellular vesicles via a pre-microRNA backbone'. Nature biomedical engineering, 4 (1):52-68 [DOI] [Details]
	(2020)	'Nanoparticle-encapsulated siRNAs for gene silencing in the haematopoietic stem-cell niche' Krohn-Grimberghe M;Mitchell MJ;Schloss MJ;Khan OF;Courties G;Guimaraes PPG;Rohde D;Cremer S;Kowalski PS;Sun Y;Tan M;Webster J;Wang K;Iwamoto Y;Schmidt SP;Wojtkiewicz GR;Nayar R;Frodermann V;Hulsmans M;Chung A;Hoyer FF;Swirski FK;Langer R;Anderson DG;Nahrendorf M; (2020) 'Nanoparticle-encapsulated siRNAs for gene silencing in the haematopoietic stem-cell niche'. Nature Biomedical Engineering, 4 (11) [DOI] [Details]
	(2020)	'Translation elongation factor 2 depletion by siRNA in mouse liver leads to mTOR-independent translational upregulation of ribosomal protein genes' Gerashchenko MV;Nesterchuk MV;Smekalova EM;Paulo JA;Kowalski PS;Akulich KA;Bogorad R;Dmitriev SE;Gygi S;Zatsepin T;Anderson DG;Gladyshev VN;Koteliansky VE; (2020) 'Translation elongation factor 2 depletion by siRNA in mouse liver leads to mTOR-independent translational upregulation of ribosomal protein genes'. Scientific Reports, 10 (1) [DOI] [Details]
	(2019)	'MRNA Delivery For Therapeutic Anti-Her2 Antibody Expression In Vivo' Rybakova, Yulia and Kowalski, Piotr S and Huang, Yuxuan and Gonzalez, John T and Heartlein, Michael W and DeRosa, Frank and Delcassian, Derfogail and Anderson, Daniel G (2019) 'MRNA Delivery For Therapeutic Anti-Her2 Antibody Expression In Vivo'. Molecular Therapy, [DOI] [Details]
	(2019)	'Endothelial miR-30c suppresses tumor growth via inhibition of TGF-ß-induced Serpine1' McCann, James V and Xiao, Lin and Kim, Dae and Khan, Omar F and Kowalski, Piotr S and Anderson, Daniel G and Pecot, Chad V and Azam, Salma H and Parker, Joel S and Tsai, Yihsuan S and Wolberg, Alisa S and Turner, Stephen D and Tatsumi, Kohei and Mackman, Nigel and Dudley, Andrew C (2019) 'Endothelial miR-30c suppresses tumor growth via inhibition of TGF-ß-induced Serpine1'. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, 130 (4):1654-1670 [DOI] [Details]
	(2019)	'Delivering the Messenger: Advances in Technologies for Therapeutic mRNA Delivery' Kowalski, Piotr S and Rudra, Arnab and Miao, Lei and Anderson, Daniel G (2019) 'Delivering the Messenger: Advances in Technologies for Therapeutic mRNA Delivery'. Molecular Therapy, [DOI] [Details]
	(2019)	'RNA Circularization Diminishes Immunogenicity and Can Extend Translation Duration In Vivo' Wesselhoeft, R Alexander and Kowalski, Piotr S and Parker-Hale, Frances C and Huang, Yuxuan and Bisaria, Namita and Anderson, Daniel G (2019) 'RNA Circularization Diminishes Immunogenicity and Can Extend Translation Duration In Vivo'. Molecular Cell, 74 (3):508-520.e4 [DOI] [Details]
	(2019)	'Long-term implant fibrosis prevention in rodents and non-human primates using crystallized drug formulations' Farah, Shady and Doloff, Joshua C and Müller, Peter and Sadraei, Atieh and Han, Hye and Olafson, Katy and Vyas, Keval and Tam, Hok and Hollister-Lock, Jennifer and Kowalski, Piotr S and Griffin, Marissa and Meng, Ashley and McAvoy, Malia and Graham, Adam C and McGarrigle, James and Oberholzer, Jose and Weir, Gordon C and Greiner, Dale L and Langer, Robert and Anderson, Daniel G (2019) 'Long-term implant fibrosis prevention in rodents and non-human primates using crystallized drug formulations'. Nature Materials, 18 (8):892-904 [DOI] [Details]
	(2018)	'Smart Biomaterials: Recent Advances and Future Directions' Kowalski, Piotr S and Bhattacharya, Chandrabali and Afewerki, Samson and Langer, Robert S (2018) 'Smart Biomaterials: Recent Advances and Future Directions'. Acs Biomaterials Science & Engineering, [DOI] [Details]
	(2018)	'Ionizable Amino-Polyesters Synthesized via Ring Opening Polymerization of Tertiary Amino-Alcohols for Tissue Selective mRNA Delivery' Kowalski, Piotr S and Palmiero, Umberto and Huang, Yuxuan and Rudra, Arnab and Langer, Robert and Anderson, Daniel G (2018) 'Ionizable Amino-Polyesters Synthesized via Ring Opening Polymerization of Tertiary Amino-Alcohols for Tissue Selective mRNA Delivery'. Advanced Materials, [DOI] [Details]
	(2018)	'Engineering circular RNA for potent and stable translation in eukaryotic cells' Wesselhoeft, Alexander R and Kowalski, Piotr S and Anderson, Daniel G (2018) 'Engineering circular RNA for potent and stable translation in eukaryotic cells'. Nature Communications, 9 (1) [DOI] [Details]
	(2018)	'Endothelium-targeted delivery of dexamethasone by anti-VCAM-1 SAINT-O-Somes in mouse endotoxemia' Li, Ranran and Kowalski, Piotr S and Morselt, Henriëtte WM and Schepel, Ilona and Jongman, Rianne M and Aslan, Adnan and Ruiters, Marcel HJ and Zijlstra, Jan G and Molema, Grietje and Meurs, Matijs van and Kamps, Jan AAM (2018) 'Endothelium-targeted delivery of dexamethasone by anti-VCAM-1 SAINT-O-Somes in mouse endotoxemia'. Plos One, 13 (5) [DOI] [Details]
	(2018)	'Endothelial siRNA delivery in nonhuman primates using ionizable low–molecular weight polymeric nanoparticles' Khan, Omar F and Kowalski, Piotr S and Doloff, Joshua C and Tsosie, Jonathan K and Bakthavatchalu, Vasudevan and Winn, Caroline and Haupt, Jennifer and Jamiel, Morgan and Langer, Robert and Anderson, Daniel G (2018) 'Endothelial siRNA delivery in nonhuman primates using ionizable low–molecular weight polymeric nanoparticles'. Science Advances, 4 (6) [DOI] [Details]
	(2017)	'Advances in the delivery of RNA therapeutics: from concept to clinical reality' Kaczmarek, James C and Kowalski, Piotr S and Anderson, Daniel G (2017) 'Advances in the delivery of RNA therapeutics: from concept to clinical reality'. Genome Medicine, 9 (1) [DOI] [Details]
	(2017)	'Ly6Clo monocytes drive immunosuppression and confer resistance to anti-VEGFR2 cancer therapy' Jung, Keehoon and Heishi, Takahiro and Khan, Omar F and Kowalski, Piotr S and Incio, Joao and Rahbari, Nuh N and Chung, Euiheon and Clark, Jeffrey W and Willett, Christopher G and Luster, Andrew D and Yun, Seok and Langer, Robert and Anderson, Daniel G and Padera, Timothy P and Jain, Rakesh K and Fukumura, Dai (2017) 'Ly6Clo monocytes drive immunosuppression and confer resistance to anti-VEGFR2 cancer therapy'. The Journal of Clinical Investigation, [DOI] [Details]
	(2016)	'Efficacy and immunogenicity of unmodified and pseudouridine-modified mRNA delivered systemically with lipid nanoparticles in vivo' Kauffman, Kevin J and Mir, Faryal F and Jhunjhunwala, Siddharth and Kaczmarek, James C and Hurtado, Juan E and Yang, Jung H and Webber, Matthew J and Kowalski, Piotr S and Heartlein, Michael W and DeRosa, Frank and Anderson, Daniel G (2016) 'Efficacy and immunogenicity of unmodified and pseudouridine-modified mRNA delivered systemically with lipid nanoparticles in vivo'. Biomaterials, 109 :78-87 [DOI] [Details]
	(2015)	'SAINT-liposome-polycation particles, a new carrier for improved delivery of siRNAs to inflamed endothelial cells' Kowalski, Piotr S and Kuninty, Praneeth R and Bijlsma, Klaas T and Stuart, Marc and Leus, Niek and Ruiters, Marcel and Molema, Grietje and Kamps, Jan (2015) 'SAINT-liposome-polycation particles, a new carrier for improved delivery of siRNAs to inflamed endothelial cells'. European Journal Of Pharmaceutics And Biopharmaceutics, 89 :40-47 [DOI] [Details]
	(2014)	'Effective siRNA delivery to inflamed primary vascular endothelial cells by anti-E-selectin and anti-VCAM-1 PEGylated SAINT-based lipoplexes' Leus, Niek and Talman, Eduard G and Ramana, Pranov and Kowalski, Piotr S and Woudenberg-Vrenken, Titia E and Ruiters, Marcel and Molema, Grietje and Kamps, Jan (2014) 'Effective siRNA delivery to inflamed primary vascular endothelial cells by anti-E-selectin and anti-VCAM-1 PEGylated SAINT-based lipoplexes'. International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 459 (1-2):40-50 [DOI] [Details]
	(2014)	'Anti-VCAM-1 SAINT-O-Somes enable endothelial-specific delivery of siRNA and downregulation of inflammatory genes in activated endothelium in vivo' Kowalski, Piotr S and Zwiers, Peter J and Morselt, Henriëtte and Kuldo, Joanna M and Leus, Niek and Ruiters, Marcel and Molema, Grietje and Kamps, Jan (2014) 'Anti-VCAM-1 SAINT-O-Somes enable endothelial-specific delivery of siRNA and downregulation of inflammatory genes in activated endothelium in vivo'. Journal Of Controlled Release, 176 :64-75 [DOI] [Details]
	(2014)	'A critical role for Egr-1 during vascular remodelling in pulmonary arterial hypertension' Dickinson, Michael G and Kowalski, Piotr S and Bartelds, Beatrijs and Borgdorff, Marinus and Feen, Diederik van der and Sietsma, Hannie and Molema, Grietje and Kamps, Jan and Berger, Rolf (2014) 'A critical role for Egr-1 during vascular remodelling in pulmonary arterial hypertension'. Cardiovascular Research, 103 (4):573-584 [DOI] [Details]
	(2014)	'VCAM-1 specific PEGylated SAINT-based lipoplexes deliver siRNA to activated endothelium in vivo but do not attenuate target gene expression' Leus, Niek and Morselt, Henriëtte and Zwiers, Peter J and Kowalski, Piotr S and Ruiters, Marcel and Molema, Grietje and Kamps, Jan (2014) 'VCAM-1 specific PEGylated SAINT-based lipoplexes deliver siRNA to activated endothelium in vivo but do not attenuate target gene expression'. International Journal of Pharmaceutics, 469 (1):121-131 [DOI] [Details]
	(2013)	'Anti-VCAM-1 and anti-E-selectin SAINT-O-Somes for selective delivery of siRNA into inflammation-activated primary endothelial cells' Kowalski, Piotr S and Lintermans, Lucas L and Morselt, Henriëtte WM and Leus, Niek GJ and Ruiters, Marcel HJ and Molema, Grietje and Kamps, Jan AAM (2013) 'Anti-VCAM-1 and anti-E-selectin SAINT-O-Somes for selective delivery of siRNA into inflammation-activated primary endothelial cells'. Molecular Pharmaceutics, 10 (8):3033-44 [DOI] [Details]
	(2011)	'Targeted siRNA delivery to diseased microvascular endothelial cells—Cellular and molecular concepts' Kowalski, Piotr S and Leus, Niek GJ and Scherphof, Gerrit L and Ruiters, Marcel HJ and Kamps, Jan AAM and Molema, Grietje (2011) 'Targeted siRNA delivery to diseased microvascular endothelial cells—Cellular and molecular concepts'. Iubmb Life, 63 (8):648-658 [DOI] [Details]
	(2010)	'Heparin Enhances Serpin Inhibition of the Cysteine Protease Cathepsin L' Higgins, Wayne J and Fox, Denise M and Kowalski, Piotr S and Nielsen, Jens E and Worrall, Margaret D (2010) 'Heparin Enhances Serpin Inhibition of the Cysteine Protease Cathepsin L'. Journal of Biological Chemistry, 285 (6):3722-3729 [DOI] [Details]

‍

Professional Activities

‍

Honours and Awards

	Year	Title	Awarding Body
	2022	ERC Starting grant	European Research Council
	2021	Government of Ireland Postgraduate Scholarship Programme (my PhD student)	Irish Research Council
	2020	HRB Emerging Investigator Award	Health Research Board
	2018	Convergence Scholar Program Award	Marble Center for Cancer Nanomedicine
	2017	JDRF Postdoctoral fellowship	Juvenile diabetes research foundation (JDRF)
	2017	Conference travel grant	Gordon Tang Goodwin Student Support Fund
	2016	Kochi Institute Travel fellowship	Koch Institute For Integrative Cancer Research
	2014	Best oral presentation award	The Cardio Vascular Conference, Ermelo, The Netherlands
	2012	Jan Kornelis de Cock-Stichting personal grant	Jan Kornelis de Cock-Stichting
	2010	Jan Kornelis de Cock-Stichting personal grant	Jan Kornelis de Cock-Stichting
	2010	Best poster award	GUIDE early summer meeting, Groningen, The Netherlands
	2008	Undergraduate Research Experience and Knowledge Award (UREKA)	University College Dublin
	2007	Leonardo da Vinci undegraduate fellowship	Leonardo da Vinci - Lifelong Learning Programme

‍

Professional Associations

	Association	Function	From / To
	North American Vascular Biology Organization (NAVBO)	Member	30-OCT-16 /
	Controlled Release Society (CRS)	Member	17-JUL-17 /

‍

Committees

	Committee	Function	From / To
	Research and Graduate Studies Committee at the School of Pharmacy	Member	/

‍

Employment

	Employer	Position	From / To
	University College Cork	Funded Investigator at the APC Microbiome Ireland	01-JUN-22 /
	School of Pharmacy, University College Cork	Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer)	01-APR-22 /
	School of Pharmacy, University College Cork	Principal Investigator	02-MAR-20 /
	Senda Biosciences, Inc., MA, USA	Senior Scientist	10-JUN-19 / 29-FEB-20
	Massachusetts Institute of Technology	Postdoctoral Fellow	01-OCT-14 / 01-JUN-19

‍

Education

	Year	Institution	Qualification	Subject
	2014	Groningen University	PhD	Drug delivery
	2009	Jagiellonian University	MSc	Biochemistry

‍

Outreach Activities

	Description
	The power of RNA: making Future Medicines possible today: https://www.ucc.ie/en/research/news-events/news/the-power-of-rna-making-future-medicines-possible-today.html
	Narrowing The Void podcast: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3KSO8rB5qSDrVgVJhb6C8X?si=75b1fa9b386e4c24&nd=1
	ERC award feature: https://www.ucc.ie/en/pharmacy/events/news/congratulations-to-dr-piotr-kowalski-school-of-pharmacy-ucc-on-the-award-of-an-erc-grant-.html
	2021 BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition panel on COVID vaccines: https://sspc.ie/2021-bt-young-scientist-and-technology-exhibition/
	Business Post commentary: https://www.businesspost.ie/pharma-med-tech/comment-cutting-edge-pharma-research-can-bring-investment-to-ireland-dceac8fd
	Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation press release: https://www.jdrf.org/blog/2017/08/24/new-rna-based-approach-target-t1d/
	Marble Center For Cancer Medicine press release: https://nanomedicine.mit.edu/piotr-kowalski
	Science communication article written for ICEBERG: https://scienceunderthesurface.wordpress.com/2019/03/04/finding-the-sweet-spot-mesoscale-nanoparticles-can-help-deliver-drugs-to-kidney-cells/

‍

Teaching Activities

‍

Teaching Interests

My teaching philosophy is founded on four key principles: 1) become a role model for student interest and motivate them to understand and apply fundamental concepts 2) help students to develop critical thinking skills 3) promote unbiased, inclusive and collaborative environment 4) motivate student to further develop their skills and knowledge to challenge existing concepts. I am interested in teaching cross-disciplinary courses on drug delivery and pharmaceutics of Advanced Medicinal Therapy Products, and applying novel teaching and learning methods to deliver course content. 

Courses taught at the School of Pharmacy: 
‍

Research Information

‍

Internal Collaborators

	Name	Institute	Country
	Prof. Caitriona O'Driscoll	University College Cork	IRELAND
	Prof. Subrata Ghosh	University College Cork	IRELAND
	Prof. Liam O'Mahony	University College Cork	IRELAND
	Dr. Malgorzata Krajewska	University College Cork	IRELAND

‍

External Collaborators

	Name	Organisation / Institute	Country
	Dr. Matijs van Meurs	University Medical Center Groningen	HOLLAND
	Dr. Jill Moser	University Medical Center Groningen	HOLLAND
	Prof. Grietje Molema	University Medical Center Groningen	HOLLAND
	Prof. Andrzej Dziembowski	International Institute of Molecular and Cell Biology	POLAND
	Prof. Hyung Chun	Yale University	U.S.A.
	Prof. Keehoon Jung	Seoul National University	SOUTH KOREA