A brief summary of moments in 2023

A lot has happened in 2023 in the PainLab team! It’s difficult to sum it up in a few sentences. In this post we summarized some of our activities in 2023. Let’s go through it again together!

2023 welcomed doctor Marta Kędziora and doctor Magdalena Białoń! Congratulations on this achievement! Prof. Katarzyna Starowicz was honored with the ICRS Mid-Career Achievement award. It was also a year of many distinctions for current and past lab members. Dr Natalia Małek-Chudzik, a former PainLab member, was ranked no. 1 on the list of funded projects when the NCN budget was „starved” and the success rate dropped drastically below 10%. We looking forward to working with Natalia on understanding the role of immunoproteasome in neuropathic pain (#Ncn #Opus25).

We presented the results of our research at numerous conferences in Europe (CEBC, EFIC, GRC), North America (OARSI, ICRS) and even Africa (MNS) . It was a great opportunity not only to be inspired and to learn about the latest discoveries in the chronic pain and cannabinoid research fields but also to meet friends (prof. Aron Lichtmann, prof. Yossi Tam, dr Alessia Ligrest, dr Bogna Ignatowska-Jankowska, dr Livio Luongo mentioning only a few of them). Meetings, especially ICRS in Toronto, were also associated with new challenges. During the 33rd Annual ICRS Symposium on the Cannabinoids prof. Starowicz took over as president-elect. Moreover, she and Matt Hill have been awarded the inaugural Mid-Career Award from ICRS.

It also was a year of new challenges, prof. Starowicz together with other distinguished scientists was involved in shaping the scientific program of EFIC 2023. Massive congratulations to prof. Esther Pogatzki-Zahn, a woman with an incredible charisma and scientific enthusiasm, for these 1.5 years of intense work.
There was also time for wonderful meetings with people who, together with Katarzyna, were the first to shape PainLab back in 2013! So proud to see how you have grown and now you’re creating your own teams! Huge congratulations to dr Mateusz Kucharczyk for starting his lab at Łukasiewicz – PORT.

Much has happened! It’s difficult to sum it up in a few sentences! We hope that our ideas and connections established and cultivated in 2023 will bear fruit in 2024 (and beyond).