Piotr obtained his Ph.D. from Jagiellonian University in Poland. Following graduate school, he moved to the United States to pursue postdoctoral training in Dr. Shruti Naik’s laboratory, first at NYU Langone Health and later at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. During this time, he identified novel immunological factors that regulate cellular adaptation to hypoxia during tissue repair. His findings have broad implications for damage-associated diseases, including non-healing wounds, cancer, and inflammatory disorders such as psoriasis. Piotr now continues this line of research as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Developmental and Cell Biology.
Research Interests: Tissue immunity, Regeneration, Inflammatory Disease, Repair, Cancer
Research Abstract
The Konieczny Lab studies how immune, epithelial stem, and endothelial cells interact to shape tissue health and disease. Using advanced genomic and imaging tools, including spatial transcriptomics, and combining basic, clinical, and translational approaches, we aim to develop new therapies for damage-repair disorders. Our research spans three main areas:
Tissue Repair & Regeneration – We investigate how epithelial stem and progenitor cells coordinate with immune and other tissue cells to restore homeostasis after injury. By mapping these cellular circuits, we seek strategies to enhance tissue repair and regeneration.
Chronic Inflammation – Barrier tissues like skin, lung, and gut are prone to chronic inflammation from injury, environment, or genetics. Inflammatory diseases often hijack wound-healing programs, leading to excessive growth, vascularization, innervation, and immune activation. We study these repair–inflammation links to uncover new therapeutic targets for damage-repair pathologies.
Cancer & Metastasis – Inflammation strongly influences epithelial cancers. While chronic inflammation’s role in tumorigenesis is well-studied, less is known about how acute inflammatory events “prime” epithelial stem cells and the microenvironment via lasting chromatin and transcriptional changes—a process we call inflammatory memory. We explore how such inflammatory memory shapes cancer progression and the metastatic niche.
Awards and Honors
2024 Regeneron Pharmaceutics Prize for Creative Innovation – Finalist
2023 NIH Pathway to Independence Award K99/R00
2023 The Society for Investigative Dermatology Future Leaders Retreat
2022 Young Innovator Award in Tissue Regeneration. Peter Sheehan Diabetes Care Foundation
2022 International Cytokine & Interferon Society
2021 Bernard Levine Research Fellowship
2020 National Psoriasis Foundation – Early Career Research Grant
2020 New York Skin Club Best Speed Talk Award
2018 European Society for Dermatological Research, Salzburg, Austria
2018 Ph.D. ETIUDA 6 Award. Polish National Science Center
2018 Research Award, Lilly Company and European Society for Dermatological Research, Salzburg,
Austria
2017 Ph.D. Fellow Award CeLL-Mol-Tech. Jagiellonian University, Poland
2016 European Society for Dermatological Research, Munich, Germany
2015 European Standards on Prevention of Occupational Skin Diseases, Split, Croatia
2014 Fellow Award, Erasmus Student Mobility, Pasteur Institute, Inserm U1011, Lille, France
Recent Publications
- Subudhi I*, Konieczny P*,#, Prystupa A, et al., Metabolic coordination between skin epithelium and type 17 immunity sustains chronic skin inflammation. Immunity. 57, 1–16 July, 2024. PMID 38772365.
- Konieczny P*, Xing Y*, et al., Interleukin-17 governs hypoxic adaptation of injured epithelium. Science. 337(6602). Jun 2022. PMID: 35709248.
- Guenin-Mace L*, Konieczny P* and Naik S. Immune-Epithelial Crass Talk in Regeneration and Repair. Annu. Rev. Immunol. 41:207-228. Jan 2023. PMID: 36696569
- Konieczny P & Naik S. Healing without scarring. Science. 372(6540):346 347. Apr 2021. PMID: 33888629.
- Konieczny P & Naik S. Cis-regulatory arbitrators of regeneration. Cell Stem Cell. 30(10):1283-1284. Oct 2023. PMID: 37714155