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About us

Maria Sklodowska-Curie Institute – Oncology Centre (MSCI), branch in Gliwice, is a medical research institute conducting research in different fields of oncology and biomedicine. The scientific staff of the Institute consists of more than 120 researchers, including about 30 professors and about 80 PhD or MD/PhD researchers. The highly qualified group of scientists comprises an interdisciplinary team representing fields of science such us clinical oncology, surgery, nuclear medicine, radiotherapy, oncological endocrinology, medical biology, biotechnology, medical physics, chemistry, bioinformatics and epidemiology. Medical activity is supported by scientific activity done by various science units and laboratories. Since the foundation of the Institute in 1947 its employees have authored and co-authored more than three thousand papers published in internationally recognized scientific journals. Major part of the scientific activity is financed by research grants financed by Ministry of Science, National Science Centre, The National Centre for Research and Development or European founds. The research staff is well recognized on the Polish and international research scene and has been involved in many aspects of basic, translational and clinical research in oncology since early 1950s. In 2004, the Research Division of the Institute was awarded the title of “National Centre of Excellence” by the Polish Ministry of Science.
 
The Institute collaborates scientifically and didactically with Polish and foreign research and academic centres. The Institute is a member of four Polish science consortiums: Centre of Biotechnology, Bioengineering and Bioinformatics – Śląska BIOFARMA, BioTechMed Silesia, Centre of Chemistry, Biology and Translation Medicine, and the European Institute of Environmental Cancer. The Institute engages in training of young researchers actively participating in development of Master Degrees and PhDs at several Universities (including The Silesian University of Technology, The University of Silesia, and The Silesian Medical University). The Institute has been actively cooperating with research teams from European and American science centres, among others: Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ) in Heidelberg, Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm/Huddinge, National Cancer Institute (NIH-NCI) in Bethesda, UT Soutwestern Medical Center in Dallas and UT MD Anderson Cancer Centre in Houston. The Institute, as the member of the CChBMT consortium, is the partner of the network of the Global Academic Program MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDAnderson Sister Institutions Network), which is an international science network grouping several dozen leading research institutions dealing with cancer therapy and biomedical sciences.
 
The Institute has at its disposal top-of-the-range science equipment and research facilities. In the Institute there are located facilities such as: the microarray laboratory (Affymetrix and Illumina platforms), the genome sequencing laboratory (Illumina Genome Analyzer platform),  proteomics and mass spectrometry (Bruker platform), confocal microscope and laser microdissection (Zeiss platform) laboratory, cytometry and cell sorting (BD Biosciences platform) or the experimental NMR spectrometry (Bruker platform). The Institute possesses an animal facility allowing for the inbreeding of athymic mice and construction of the so called transgenic mice. In the Institute there is also a biological bank with a collection of several thousand DNA specimens and blood serum. It is complimented by the epidemiological information about the population of the cancer patients (The Institute runs a regional Silesian Cancer Registry). At the same time our belongs the largest oncology centres (in Poland and abroad) conducting advanced treatment on vast number of cancer patients. As a result, our Institute has a large potential to perform research leading to creation, testing and introduction of the new therapeutic and diagnostic procedures in the field of precision oncology.