The Bronisz research group is focused on understanding the cellular and extracellular mechanisms underlying the brain tumor heterogeneity, focusing on non-coding RNA (ncRNA) molecules. Dr. Bronisz’s laboratory and the other teams of the Harvey Cushing Neuro-Oncology Laboratories at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (under the direction of Dr. EA Chiocca) have strong collaborative forces to explore and understand the mechanisms that make the brain tumor clinically intractable to develop novel therapeutic approaches.

Dr. Agnieszka Bronisz earned her Master degree in biology from University of Warsaw, Warsaw, Poland in 1997 and her Ph.D. degree in molecular neuropathology from the Medical Research Centre of Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland in 2001. Subsequently, Dr. Bronisz conducted post-doctoral training in molecular cell biology at the Texas A&M University Health Science Center and in molecular genetics and tumor microenvironment at The Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 2012 she joined the Department of Neurosurgery as Instructor of Neurosurgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School where she established her research group to study the role of cellular and extracellular ncRNA in the heterogeneity of glioblastoma.

Dr. Bronisz’s laboratory utilize cancer research approaches coupled with biochemistry, molecular biology, cell biology, functional assays, and computation to derive principles of cellular and extracellular ncRNAs-mediated regulation of tumor cells in the context of the microenvironmental niche. The laboratory is focused on determining the function and mechanism of clinically-relevant ncRNAs in an unbiased manner, utilizing patient-derived cells in the model of heterogeneous intracranial xenografts. The group use molecular approaches to test various experimental assays to define formation of ncRNA/protein complexes and their function. The Bronisz’s group is an integrated experimental lab that uses and develops clinically relevant in vivo models coupled with global screens of protein-coding genes, proteins and non-coding RNAs. Together with computational group, pathology expertise, clinical support and collaboration with RNA biology group her goal is to test the hypothesis that extracellular vesicles and ncRNA-dependent signaling modifies cellular response to microenvironment and mediates interaction between heterogeneous brain tumor cells and their anatomic niche.