Tomasz Wójtowicz

Biography: Tomasz Wójtowicz is currently a principal investigator in the SONATA BIS project, affiliated with the Laboratory of Cell Biophysics at the Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology. He earned his PhD at Wroclaw Medical University, where he combined electrophysiology and neuropharmacology to describe the mechanism of action of benzodiazepines on GABAARs in neurons. He completed his postdoctoral research in molecular neuroscience at the Department of Molecular Physiology and Neurobiology at Wroclaw University, focusing on the role of fructose bisphosphatase 2 (FBP2) in hippocampal neuronal plasticity. During his PhD and postdoc, he was also an academic teacher in medical biophysics, human physiology, and diseases of affluence. He has received stipends and awards from the Foundation for Polish Science, the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education, and the British Council.

Dr. Wójtowicz has a long-standing interest in understanding the mechanisms of brain plasticity. He has previously described the synapse- and subtype-specific role of matrix metalloproteases in shaping the strength of hippocampal excitatory synapses. Together with his team, he is currently investigating the role of protein S-palmitoylation in learning and memory, with a particular emphasis on understanding the time course and chemical cues triggering this process in the brain.