Mateusz S Wietecha
Email Address: mwietec2@uic.eduCollege: Dentistry Department: Oral Biology
Title: Assistant Professor
Office: Room 437
Webpage: https://sites.google.com/uic.edu/wietecha
Participating in the Chancellor’s Undergraduate Research Awards program: Yes
Research Interest:
In our lab we are fascinated by the complexity of wound healing, an evolutionarily optimized program for efficient repair of damaged tissue involving dozens of cell types and thousands of molecules interacting across time and space. Healing programs become dysregulated in tumors, and cancer has been described as a 'wound that fails to heal'.
Only in recent years has it become possible to more fully appreciate the symphony of healing and its dysregulation in tumors by emerging multi-omic tools such as single cell and spatial transcriptomics. Our research combines these multi-omics technologies and powerful tissue imaging methods in animal and cell models of healing and carcinogenesis with classic molecular biology tools, providing the perfect training for students and post-docs interested in systems and molecular biology.
The overarching goal of our research is to begin to figure out why oral tumors are so much more aggressive than their much-more-common counterparts in the skin. Our hypothesis is that the superior healing potential of oral mucosa plays a critical role.
Our lab has a flexible, friendly and open environment. We emphasize scientific integrity, communication, teamwork and interdisciplinary collaboration.
Please check out our website for more information: https://sites.google.com/uic.edu/wietecha Minimum time commitment in hours per week: Flexible Qualifications of a Student:
Highly motivated individual; sense of personal responsibility; some experience in coding (R, Python) preferred; biology and/or computer science and/or bioengineering background preferred; laboratory coursework preferred but not required; passion for science required. Brief Summary of what is expected from the student:
This is a new lab with a new young PI --- this is a unique opportunity for a student to be involved at the inception of an interdisciplinary research laboratory. The student will work directly with the PI to try new protocols, analyze new multi-omic datasets, devise follow-up experiments, and help establish our lab. Students must have a commitment to science, to completing a project and to being actively engaged in lab activities.
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