Bartłomiej Stańczykiewicz, PhD habil

  Psychologist, Psychotherapist,
  Sexologist, Neuroscientist
  University professor

    Polish Platform of Medical Research

Dr hab. Bartłomiej Stańczykiewicz, MSc in Biology, MA in Psychology, PhD in Medicine Science, is a university professor, and he works at the Division of Consultation Psychiatry and Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Wroclaw Medical University in Poland.

His research integrates biological and psychological approaches in studies regarding mental health issues. His primary focus is to identify the possible factors that inhibit the development of pathology in neurodegenerative disorders. In addition, he is interested in inflammation in schizophrenia spectrum and neurodegenerative disorders, supportive biological and psychological approaches in mood and anxiety disorders, as well as in age-related cognitive impairment. He is also interested in studies investigating factors associated with minority stress in the context of mental health.

Main Scientific Achievements

• Principal Investigator of the project titled In quest of mechanisms regarding to relationship between minority stress and cortisol secretion in the context of mental health (Miniatura, National Science Centre, Poland, number 2021/05/X/HS6/01689, years 2021-2023). Altogether, the findings from this project provided preliminary evidence for the association between specific aspects of sexual minority stress and cortisol responses that warrants further research in larger samples with multiple assessments of salivary cortisol levels.

• Principal Investigator of the project titled The impact of ovocystatin on neurodegenerative processes-in quest of mechanisms participating in neurogenesis, and neuroprotection (Ministry of Education and Science in the Regional Initiative of Excellence, number RID.Z501.20.011, years 2020-2022). The main results of this project showed that ovocystatin inhibits Aβ aggregation in vitro and attenuates Aβ toxicity on PC12 cells.

• Awards for scientific activity: 1^st Degree Rector Award of the Rector of Wroclaw Medical University for publications (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022); award titled Gold Synapse for the most influential article published by Polish psychiatrists (2018, 2019, 2020); 1^st award for the poster at  Psychiatry – Interdisciplinary Dialogues conference in Wroclaw (2016); 3^rd award for the poster at Polish Gerontology Association’ conference in Wroclaw (2011).

• Scholarships: Scholarship for 18^th Berlin Summer School-Deutsche Forschungs-gemeinschaft and a donation of the Seelen-Bewegt Stiftung (2018); Three months research fellowship funded by French Government-IGBMC, Illkirch, France (2018); Scholarship for research internship funded by Human Capital National Cohesion Strategy, European Union (2010).

Bartłomiej is increasingly interested in identifying possible factors that inhibit the development of pathology in neurodegenerative diseases. In 2010, within the project Innovative technologies of production of biopreparations based on new generations of eggs (OVOCURA), co-financed by the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund within the Operational Programme Innovative Economy, he started research on bioactive peptides/proteins that are promising candidates for use as inhibitors of Aβ fibril formation. In particular, he worked on ovocystatin, which is isolated from chicken egg white. His group found that ovocystatin improved cognitive function in young rats and prevented aging-related cognitive impairment in older animals. They also showed that the administration of ovocystatin in drinking water could be effective in preventing cognitive decline in APP/PS1 mice. In addition, they revealed that it could also be used as a useful factor against Aβ oligomerisation and consequent amyloid fibril formation and tau protein deposition.

Bartłomiej is a section editor in psychiatry for Advances in Clinical and Experimental Medicine and a review editor for Frontiers in Psychiatry.

In addition to his academic practice, Bartłomiej has many years of experience as a psychologist, cognitive-behavioral psychotherapist, and sexologist with patients suffering from mental health disorders.