prof. Sławomir Łukomski

Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cell Biology, West Virginia University School of Medicine

He graduated from the Faculty of Biology and Earth Sciences, University of Lodz (1982). He obtained his doctoral degree in microbiology at the Faculty of Biology. From 1982 to 1993, he was a researcher at the Institute of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Lodz. He completed a research internship in bacterial pathogenesis at the Forschungsinstitut Borstel in Germany under a scholarship from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. He received a research position at Baylor College of Medicine, USA in 1997. Since 2003, he has been a professor of microbiology, immunology and cell biology at the medical school of West Virginia University, USA. He completed his postdoctoral thesis at the University of Lodz in 2004.

Prof. Łukomski specialises in the study of bacterial pathogenesis factors. Recently, he has studied collagen-like proteins of micro-organisms, of which he is a co-discoverer, in particular in the Streptococcus pyogenes bacterium. He showed, for the first time, that the collagen-like region actually adopts the structure of mammalian collagen and is recognised by human collagen receptors. The production of functional recombinant proteins has been patented and is being developed by a biotechnology company as a biomaterial to aid in wound healing. Current research projects include the role of these proteins in biofilm formation and host colonisation, immune and autoimmune responses during streptococcal infections. He collaborates with numerous teams in the US, Europe, Asia and South America.