Scientists from three academic centers: the Medical University of Lodz, the Jagiellonian University in Krakow and the Wrocław University of Science and Technology under the guidance of Prof. Wojciech Młynarski from the Medical University of Lodz want to develop innovative cell therapy that will allow the treatment of congenital immunodeficiency. They obtained funding for this research from the Foundation for Polish Science, as part of the TEAM-NET program implemented with EU funds from the Intelligent Development Operational Program.

– Our goal is to develop an effective, simple and cheap diagnostic test that differentiates neutropenia for genetic reasons from non-genetic ones. We also want to find new, yet undiscovered genes responsible for innate neutropenia – explains Prof. Wojciech Młynarski.

Researchers will take the bone marrow from patients with congenital neutropenia to isolate the blood stem cells. Then, in the laboratory, they will fix genetic errors in stem cells and from repaired stem cells will grow healthy neutrophils. After checking whether the neutrophils are functional, they will introduce them to patients.