Associate Professor Jakub Sedzinski and his team focus on understanding the cellular mechanics of respiratory tissues – also known as mucociliary epithelia. They in particular aim to determine the mechanics behind the formation and renewal of mucociliary epithelial cells, as well as their molecular regulation. For this, they use high-resolution microscopy to image dynamics of cells during respiratory tissue formation and renewal.

Associate Professor Sedzinski and his team have also developed a novel animal model system that facilitates the rapid testing of hypothesis and the analysis of different gene functions in respiratory tissues. They collaborate with clinicians, geneticists, computational scientists, mathematicians, and bioengineers to construct robust experimental design.

Associate Professor Sedzinski works within reNEW’s EXPLORE theme where he focuses on understanding the molecular and mechanical mechanisms behind the formation and renewal of respiratory tissues. He has a cross-disciplinary background in biology, biophysics, and computational biology. After undergraduate studies in molecular biology at the University of Wroclaw, Poland, he completed a PhD at the Max Planck Institute of Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden.

Associate Professor Sedzinski then received a fellowship from European Molecular Biology Organization to carry out research at the University of Texas, Austin. Here, he continued his training in mechanics and regulation of cell shape, but in the context of developing embryos.