Mydel Group
Piotr Mydel leads the Mydel group. He did his PhD education at the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland and at the University of Boston, MA, USA followed by post-doctoral work at Washington University, University of Gothenburg and University of Bergen. He was appointed Professor I at the University of Bergen in 2019. Piotr Mydel also holds a professorship at the Jagiellonian University.
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The group believes in interdisciplinary cooperation with medical and dental clinicians, epidemiologists, bio-scientists, industrial scientists to achieve their goals of elucidating the role of post-translational modifications in the aetiology of auto颅immune diseases.
Taking into account that up to 30% of the adult population worldwide suffers from severe periodontitis, the impact of this disease on human health is immense. Periodontitis (PD) is largely caused by infection, in which听Porphyromonas gingivalis听is a major pathogen, and is the most prevalent infectious inflammatory disease of mankind.
Mounting evidence suggests a causative link between PD and rheumatoid arthritis (RA), as well as periodontitis and cardiovascular disease.听P. gingivalis听is the only bacterium expressing the enzyme peptidylarginine deiminase (PAD) which converts arginine to citrulline, a process referred to as citrullination. Antibodies towards such citrullinated proteins, i.e ACPAs/anti-CCP, are of central importance in RA a chronic autoimmune disease which affect 0.5-1% worldwide. The presence of ACPAs or anti-CCP autoantibodies is not only highly specific for RA but the presence is also related to a more severe and destructive disease progression.
They hypothesise that anti-citrullinated protein antibodies can be generated, in genetically susceptible individuals, as a consequence of P. gingivalis-induced citrullination in the gingiva.
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GROUP LEADER
Prof. Piotr Mydel, MD, PhD
GROUP MEMBERS
- Marta Kaminska, PhD (Postdoc)
- Urszula Zofia Kalucka, PhD fellow
- Noemie Dudzinska, PhD fellow
