Marcin Iwanicki (miwanick)

Marcin Iwanicki

Assistant Professor

Charles V. Schaefer, Jr. School of Engineering and Science

Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology

McLean Hall 316
(201) 216-8315

Education

  • PhD (2008) University of Virginia (Microbiology/Cancer Biology and Immunology )

Research

The primary focus of our research program is to characterize the functional consequences of cell interaction with extracellular matrix (ECM), amino acid osmolytes, and perfluorinated alkylated substances (PFAS).

General Information

I am a tenure-track faculty member, at the rank of Assistant Professor, in the Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology (CCB) at the Stevens Institute of Technology. I teach multiple undergraduate and graduate courses and provide service to the Department and the School of Engineering and Science (SES). I also lead the externally funded eclectic research group of high-school-, undergraduate-, and graduate students ( http://www.iwanickilab.org/lab-members/) and provide external service to the scientific community through routine participation in the National Cancer Institute and the Department of Defense study sections, manuscript peer-reviews, and leading thematic issues for scientific journals.

Experience

Assistant Professor. January 2018 - Current
Stevens Institute of Technology, Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology. Integration of tissue engineering with cancer biology using basement membranes, amino acids, live-cell microscopy, and mouse models.


Visiting Assistant Professor. May 2021 - Current
Jersey City Medical Center, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology.
Tumor board member contributing to developing a joint program between Stevens and Jersey City Medical Center to allow our pre-med undergrads to conduct summer internships in the clinical department.

Postdoctoral Fellow. August 2008 - December 2017
Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA
Developed tissue models of ovarian cancer metastasis.


Graduate Student August 2001 - July 2008
University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
Developed microscopy approaches to study the dynamics of matrix adhesions.

Research Associate I and II May 1999 - July 2001
Henry M. Jackson Foundation, US Army HIV Research Program
Technical support to Dr. Thomas Vancott, Dr. Deborah Birx, and Anthony Fauci's laboratory.

Institutional Service

  • Faculty Advisory Committee Member with The Teaching and Learning Center Member
  • The SES Dean’s Faculty Advisory Council Member
  • Non-Tenure Track Faculty Search Committee. Bi-weekly and later weekly meetings and interviews. Member
  • Tenure Track Faculty Search Committee Member
  • Expansion and Operation of The Stevens Facility for Animal Research Committee. Member
  • CCB Department/Health Profession Subcommittee for Strategic Planning Member
  • CCB Graduate education committee member Member
  • SES/Stevens Appointed by the Dean as a member of Department Chair search committee Member
  • Graduate Student Recruitment Chemistry Chemical Biology Member
  • Undergraduate Student Recruitment Member

Professional Service

  • Frontiers in Cell and Developmental Biology Associate Editor
  • Study Section NCI Predoc to Postdoc Fellow Transition Award (F99/K00) Scientific Reviewer
  • DOD-CDMRP Member of the study section CDMRP DOD FY22 OCRP Study section
  • NIH/NCI Member of the study section NIH/NCI Special Emphasis Panel 10 ZCA1 TCRB-J Study section
  • Cancers ( journal) Special Issue Lead Editor
  • NIH/NCI Study section NIH/NCI ZCA1 TCRB5, Clinical and Translational Exploratory R21 panel. Ovarian and Prostate Cancer panel.
  • DOD/CDMRP Study section CDMRP Department of Defense, Ovarian Cancer Research Program.
  • MDPI/Cancers Contributing Editor
  • Cancer Research, Cancer Letters, Cancers, Review Editor
  • Oncotarget Review Editor

Honors and Awards

2001-2006 Pre-doctoral, Ruth Kirschstein Award, NCI
2006-2009 Post-doctoral, Cell Migration Consortium, NIH
2009 -2012 Post-doctoral, Ruth Kirschstein Award, NCI
2012-2017 Post-doctoral, Adelson Research Foundation
2015 Post-doctoral, Ovarian Cancer Action HHMT fellowship, United Kingdom
2015 Post-doctoral, The Marsha Rivkin Center for Ovarian Cancer Research Scholar-in-Training Award

Professional Societies

  • ASMB – American Society for Matrix Biology Member
  • Biomedical Engineering Society Member
  • AACR – American Society for Cancer Research Member

Grants, Contracts and Funds

2023-2024 Kaleidoscope of Hope Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation: Nutritional Supplement Taurine Suppresses Ovarian Cancer Growth.

2020 -2023 NCI/NIH: High-Resolution Dynamic Imaging of Ovarian Cancer Metastasis Post Chemotherapy.

2019-2021 Kaleidoscope of Hope Ovarian Cancer Research Foundation: Application of Photoreactive Probes and Fiberoptic Devices for Detection of Fallopian Tube Cell Transformation in Organoid-On-Chip Models of Ovarian Cancer.

2019 -2024 OLIPASS.INC: Targeting SLC6A6 in Therapy Resistant Ovarian Cancer

Selected Publications

Since Joining Stevens

1. Daniel Centeno*, Sadaf Farsinejad*, Elena Kochetkova, Tatiana Volpari, Agnieszka Klupczynska-Gabryszak, Douglas Kung, Teagan Polotaye**, Emily Hyde**, Michael Greenberg**, Tonja Pavlovic*, Sarah Alshehri, William Sullivan, Szymon Plewa, Helin Vakifahmetoglu-Norberg, Frederick J. Monsma Jr., Patricia A. J. Muller, JanMatysiak, Mikolaj Zaborowski, Analisa DiFeo, Laura A. Martin, Erik Norberg, Marcin Iwanicki The nutritional supplement taurine activates p53-dependent and independent tumor suppressor mechanisms in various cellular models of ovarian cancer.
bioRxiv 2023.02.24.529893; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.02.24.529893
* Graduate students
** Undergraduate students

2 Marcin Iwanicki, Tonja Pavlovic*, Panteha Behboodi**
Peer-Reviewed Book Chapter Title: Engineering Approaches in Ovarian Cancer Cell Culture. Current Cancer Research
* Graduate student in my laboratory
** Graduate student in Woo Lee’s laboratory
Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland AG Electronic ISSN:2199-2592. April 2023
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-22802-5_8


3. Sarah Alshehri*, Tonja Pavlovič*, Sadaf Farsinejad*, Panteha Behboodi*^, Li Quan*^, Daniel Centeno*, Douglas Kung**, Marta Rezler, Woo Lee, Piotr Jasiński, Elżbieta Dziabaszewska, Ewa Nowak-Markwitz, Dilhan Kalyon, Mikołaj P. Zaborowski, Marcin Iwanicki Extracellular Matrix Modulates Outgrowth Dynamics in Ovarian Cancer. Advanced Biology; DOI: 10.1002/adbi.202200197 – Citations - not reported
* Graduate students
*^ Graduate students (Woo Lee’s and Dilhan Kalyon students)
** Undergraduate student

4. Tangri A, Lighty K, Loganathan J, Mesmar F, Podicheti R, Zhang C, Iwanicki M, Drapkin R, Nakshatri H, Mitra S. Deubiquitinase UCHL1 Maintains Protein Homeostasis through the PSMA7-APEH-Proteasome Axis in High-grade Serous Ovarian Carcinoma. 2021 July; 19(7):1168-1181. doi: 10.1158/1541-7786. Molecular Cancer Research-20-0883. PMID: 33753553 Citations - not reported

5. Izar B, Tirosh I, Stover EH, Wakiro I, Cuoco MS, Alter I, Rodman C, Leeson R, Su MJ, Shah P, Iwanicki M, Walker SR, Kanodia A, Melms JC, Mei S, Lin JR, Porter CBM, Slyper M, Waldman J, JerIzar B, Tirosh I, Stover EH, Wakiro I, Cuoco MS, Alter I, Rodman C, Leeson R, Su MJ, Shah P, Iwanicki M, Walker SR, Kanodia A, Melms JC, Mei S, Lin JR, Porter CBM, Slyper M, Waldman J, Jerby-Arnon L, Ashenberg O, Brinker TJ, Mills C, Rogava M, Vigneau S, Sorger PK, Garraway LA, Konstantinopoulos PA, Liu JF, Matulonis U, Johnson BE, Rozenblatt-Rosen O, Rotem A, Regev A. A Single-Cell Landscape of High-Grade Serous Ovarian Cancer. Nature Medicine. 2020 Aug 26(8):1271-1279. doi: 10.1038/s41591-020-0926-0. Online ahead of print. PMID: 32572264 Citations 647

6. Kozlova N, Grossman JE, Iwanicki MP, Muranen T. The Interplay of the Extracellular Matrix and Stromal Cells as a Drug Target in Stroma-Rich Cancers. Trends Pharmacol Sci. 2020 Jan 31. pii: S0165-6147(20)30001-8. doi: 10.1016/j.tips.2020.01.001. Citations 258

7. Farsinejad S*, Cattabiani T, Muranen T, Iwanicki M. Ovarian Cancer Dissemination-A Cell Biologist’s Perspective. Cancers. 2019 Dec 6;11(12):1957. doi: 10.3390/cancers11121957. Review. PubMed PMID: 31817625. Citations 126
* Graduate student

8. Zaborowski MP, Lee K, Na YJ, Sammarco A, Zhang X, Iwanicki M, Cheah PS, Lin HY, Zinter M, Chou CY, Fulci G, Tannous BA, Lai CP, Birrer MJ, Weissleder R, Lee H, Breakefield XO. Methods for Systematic Identification of Membrane Proteins for Specific Capture of Cancer-Derived Extracellular Vesicles. Cell Rep. 2019 Apr 2;27(1):255-268.e6. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2019.03.003. PMID: 30943406 Citations 213

Prior to Joining Stevens

9. Eriksson M, Ambroise G, Ouchida AT, Lima Queiroz A, Smith D, Gimenez-Cassina A, Iwanicki MP, Muller PA, Norberg E, Vakifahmetoglu-Norberg H. Effect of Mutant p53 Proteins on Glycolysis and Mitochondrial Metabolism. Mol Cell Biol. 2017 Nov 28;37(24). Citations 787

10. Mauricio Medrano, Laudine Communal, Kevin Brown, Marcin Iwanicki, Josee Normand, Joshua Paterson, Fabrice Sircoulomb, Paul Krzyzanowski, Marian Novak, Sasha A. Doodnauth, Fernando Suarez Saiz, Jane Cullis, Rima Al-awar, Benjamin G. Neel, John McPherson, Ronny Drapkin, Laurie Ailles, Anne-Marie Mes-Massons, and Robert Rottapel. Interrogation of functional cell surface markers identifies CD151 dependency in high-grade serous ovarian cancer. Cell Reports 2017 March 7, 18(10) :2343-2358. doi: 10.1016/j.celrep.2017.02.028. Citations 361

11. Taru Muranen, Marcin P. Iwanicki, Natasha L.Curry, Julie Hwang, Cory D. Dubois, Jonathan L.Coloff, Daniel S.Hitchcock, Clary B. Clish, Joan S. Brugge and Nada Y. Kalaany. Starved epithelial cells uptake extracellular matrix for survival. Nature Communications 2017, January 10th 2017; 8:13989. doi: 10.1038/ncomms13989 Citations 1609

12. Marcin P. Iwanicki, Hsing-Yu Chen, Claudia Iavarone, Ioannis K. Zervantonakis,, Taru Muranen, Marián Novak, Tan A. Ince, Ronny Drapkin and Joan S. Brugge. Mutant p53 regulates ovarian cancer transformed phenotypes through autocrine matrix deposition. J Clin Invest. Insight 2016 July 7th doi:10.1172/jci.insight.86829 Citations 1098

13. Sheets JN, Iwanicki M, Liu JF, Howitt BE, Hirsch MS, Gubbels JA, Drapkin R, Egland KA. SUSD2 expression in high-grade serous ovarian cancer correlates with increased patient survival and defective mesothelial clearance Oncogenesis. 2016 Oct 24;5(10):e264. doi: 10.1038/oncsis.2016.64. PMID: 2777569. Citations 150

14. Bowtell DD, Böhm S, Ahmed AA, Aspuria PJ, Bast RC Jr, Beral V, Berek JS, Birrer MJ, Blagden S, Bookman MA, Brenton JD, Chiappinelli KB, Martins FC, Coukos G, Drapkin R, Edmondson R, Fotopoulou C, Gabra H, Galon J, Gourley C, Heong V, Huntsman DG, Iwanicki M, Karlan BY, Kaye A, Lengyel E, Levine DA, Lu KH, McNeish IA, Menon U, Narod SA, Nelson BH, Nephew KP, Pharoah P, Powell DJ Jr, Ramos P, Romero IL, Scott CL, Sood AK, Stronach EA, Balkwill FR. Rethinking ovarian cancer II: reducing mortality from high-grade serous ovarian cancer. Nat Rev Cancer. 2015 Nov;15(11):668-79. doi: 10.1038/nrc4019. PMID: 26493647 Citations 11460

15. Davidowitz RA, Selfors LM, Iwanicki MP, Elias KM, Karst A, Piao H, Ince TA, Drage MG, Dering J, Konecny GE, Matulonis U, Mills GB, Slamon DJ, Drapkin R, Brugge JS. Mesenchymal gene program-expressing ovarian cancer spheroids exhibit enhanced mesothelial clearance. J Clin Invest. 2014 Jun;124(6):2611-25. doi: 10.1172/JCI69815. Epub 2014 Apr 24. PMID: 24762435 Citations 3100

16. Maninová M, Iwanicki MP, Vomastek T. Emerging role for nuclear rotation and orientation in cell migration. Cell Adh Migr. 2014;8(1):42-8. doi: 10.4161/cam.27761. Epub 2013 Jan 1.PMID: 24589621 Citations 382

17. Merritt MA, Bentink S, Schwede M, Iwanicki MP, Quackenbush J, Woo T, Agoston ES, Reinhardt F, Crum CP, Berkowitz RS, Mok SC, Witt AE, Jones MA, Wang B, Ince TA Gene Expression Signature of Normal Cell-of-Origin Predicts Ovarian Tumor Outcomes. PLoS One. 2013 Nov 26;8(11):e80314. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0080314. eCollection 2013. PMID: 24303006 Citations 1088

18. Vakifahmetoglu-Norberg H, Kim M, Xia HG, Iwanicki MP, Ofengeim D, Coloff JL, Pan L, Ince TA, Kroemer G, Brugge JS, Yuan J. Chaperone-mediated autophagy degrades mutant p53. Genes Dev. 2013 Aug 1;27(15):1718-30. doi: 10.1101/gad.220897.113. PMID: 23913924 Citations 4327

19. Maninová M, Klímová Z, Parsons JT, Weber MJ, Iwanicki MP, Vomastek T. The reorientation of cell nucleus promotes the establishment of front-rear polarity in migrating fibroblasts. J Mol Biol. 2013 Jun 12;425(11):2039-2055. doi: 10.1016/j.jmb.2013.02.034. Epub 2013 Mar 21. PMID: 23524135 Citations 450

20. Rachel A. Davidowitz, Marcin P. Iwanicki and Joan S. Brugge. In vitro Mesothelial Clearance Assay that Models the Early Steps of Ovarian Cancer Metastasis. J Vis Exp. 2012 Feb 17;(60). pii: 3888. doi:10.3791/3888 Citations 490

21. Muranen T, Selfors LM, Worster DT, Iwanicki MP, Song L, Morales FC, Gao S, Mills GB, Brugge JS. Inhibition of PI3K/mTOR leads to adaptive resistance in matrix-attached cancer cells. Cancer Cell. 2012 Feb 14;21(2):227-39. doi: 10.1016/j.ccr.2011.12.024. PMID: 22340595. Citations 21061

22. Iwanicki MP, Davidowitz RA, Ng MR, Besser A, Muranen T, Merritt M, Danuser G, Ince TA, Brugge JS. Ovarian cancer spheroids use myosin-generated force to clear the mesothelium. Cancer Discov. 2011 Jul;1(2):144-57. doi: 10.1158/2159-8274.CD-11-0010. PMID: 22303516 Citations 8593

23. Iwanicki MP, Brugge JS. Transcriptional regulation of metastatic [Id]entity by KLF17.
Genome Biol. 2009;10(11):244. doi: 10.1186/gb-2009-10-11-244. Epub 2009 Nov 30. PMID: 19951400 Citations 245

24. Muller PA, Caswell PT, Doyle B, Iwanicki MP, Tan EH, Karim S, Lukashchuk N, Gillespie DA, Ludwig RL, Gosselin P, Cromer A, Brugge JS, Sansom OJ, Norman JC, Vousden KH. Mutant p53 drives invasion by promoting integrin recycling. Cell. 2009 Dec 24;139(7):1327-41. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2009.11.026. PMID: 20064378 Citations 28510

25. Vomastek T, Iwanicki MP, Burack WR, Tiwari D, Kumar D, Parsons JT, Weber MJ, Nandicoori VK. Extracellular signal-regulated kinase 2 (ERK2) phosphorylation sites and docking domain on the nuclear pore complex protein Tpr cooperatively regulate ERK2-Tpr interaction. Mol Cell Biol. 2008 Nov;28(22):6954-66. doi: 10.1128/MCB.00925-08. Epub 2008 Sep 15. PMID: 18794356, (co-first author) Citations 2058

26. Iwanicki MP, Vomastek T, Tilghman RW, Martin KH, Banerjee J, Wedegaertner PB, Parsons JT. FAK, PDZ-RhoGEF and ROCKII cooperate to regulate adhesion movement and trailing-edge retraction in fibroblasts. J Cell Sci 2008 Mar 15;121(Pt 6):895-905. doi: 10.1242/jcs.020941. Epub 2008 Feb 26. PMID: 18303050 Citations 4433

27. Vomastek T, Iwanicki MP, Schaeffer HJ, Tarcsafalvi A, Parsons JT, Weber MJ. RACK1 targets the extracellular signal-regulated kinase/mitogen-activated protein kinase pathway to link integrin engagement with focal adhesion disassembly and cell motility. Mol Cell Biol. 2007 Dec;27(23):8296-305. doi: 10.1128/MCB.00598-07. Epub 2007 Oct 1. PMID: 17908799 Citations 1977

28. Slack-Davis JK, Martin KH, Tilghman RW, Iwanicki M, Ung EJ, Autry C, Luzzio MJ, Cooper B, Kath JC, Roberts WG, Parsons JT. Cellular characterization of a novel focal adhesion kinase inhibitor. J Biol Chem. 2007 May 18;282(20):14845-52. doi: 10.1074/jbc.M606695200. Epub 2007 Mar 28. PMID: 17395594 Citations 15588

29. Tilghman RW, Slack-Davis JK, Sergina N, Martin KH, Iwanicki M, Hershey ED, Beggs HE, Reichardt LF, Parsons JT. Focal adhesion kinase is required for the spatial organization of the leading edge in migrating cells. J Cell Sci.2005 Jun 15;118(Pt 12):2613-23. doi: 10.1242/jcs.02380. Epub 2005 May 24. PMID: 15914540 Citations 8580

30. Chen X, Scala G, Quinto I, Liu W, Chun TW, Justement JS, Cohen OJ, van Cott TC, Iwanicki M, Lewis MG, Greenhouse J, Barry T, Venzon D, Fauci AS. Protection of Rhesus Macaques against Disease Progression from Pathogenic SHIV-89.6PD by Vaccination with Phage-Displayed HIV-1 Epitopes. Nature Medicine. 2001 Nov;7(11):1225-31. doi: 10.1038/nm1101-1225. Citations 2364

Courses

BIO526 (Spring 2020 -present)
BIO683 (Fall 2022-present)
BIO281 (Spring 2024)