Roles and responsibilities
I am an expert in stem cell biology and lead HHT’s efforts in leveraging human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) to develop predictive and physiologically relevant complex models for advancing drug discovery and screening platforms integrating multi-physiological systems, 3D bioprinting technologies and genome engineering approaches. I also lead the Precision Engineering Master Project in HHT's Cell and Gene Therapy Challenge Program developing genome engineering tools, technologies and platforms for advancing bioengineering of novel therapeutic cell based therapies and disease models.
Current research and/or projects
- Developing more predictive and physiologically relevant blood brain barrier and neural models to advance drug discovery and drug screening using multiphysiological systems and 3D bioprinting technologies;
- Deploying synthetic biology approaches to genetically engineering therapeutic attributes into iPSC cell chassis to advance the next generation of engineered cell based therapies for regenerative medicines and immunotherapy applications (iPSC derived CAR-NK cells);
- Elucidating underlying causes of rare disease pathophysiology (genotype to phenotype correlations) using patients derived iPSC to understand mechanisms of disease and identify therapeutic targets.
Research and/or project statements
- Developing predictive complex 3D models for drug discovery, reducing reliance on animal testing, and accelerating drug discovery and cell based therapies.
- Integrating stem cell biology, synthetic biology, biomaterials and genome engineering towards bioengineered celluilar models and cell therapies.
- Establishing human iPSC biobank lines, tools and technology platforms to drive discovery in disease modeling, drug discovery, and therapeutic development.
Education
Post-Doctoral Fellow, Science Policy
Office of Paediatric Initiatives, Health Products and Food Branch, Health Canada
Ph.D., Cellular and Molecular Medicine
Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa
M.Sc., Microbiology and Immunology
Faculty of Medicine, University of Ottawa
B.Sc., Honours Biopharmaceutical Science (Genomics Option), Co-operative Education
Cum Laude, Faculty of Science, University of Ottawa
Professional activities/interests
Member of Director General's of Research Expert Advisory Committee, NRC
Scientist Mentor for Advanced Therapies and Cancer Streams, Creative Destruction Labs
Editorial Board Member for Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, Tissue Barriers and Scientific Reports
Member of Tissue Engineering and Applied Materials Hub at Carleton University
Member of Standards Council of Canada
Affiliations
Adjunct Professor, Department of Biochemistry, Microbiology and Immunology, University of Ottawa
Associate Member, Ottawa Institute of Systems Biology, University of Ottawa
Awards
- NRC Intellectual Property Achievement Award, NRC
- HHT Excellence Award: Leadership Award, NRC
- NRC Outstanding Achievement Award: Rising Star Award, NRC
- HHT Excellence Award: Outstanding Team Award, NRC
Key publications
Alasmar S, Huang J, Chopra K, Baumann E, Aylsworth A, Hewitt M, Sandhu JK, Tauskela JS, Ben RN and Jezierski A. “Improved cryopreservation of human induced pluripotent stem cell (iPSC) and iPSC derived neurons using ice-recrystallization inhibitors (IRIs)” Stem Cells. Sxad059, 2023
Jezierski A, Huang J, Haqqani AS, Haukenfrers J, Liu Z, Baumann E, Sodja C, Charlebois C, Delaney C, Star A, Liu Q and Stanimirovic DB. “Mouse embryonic stem-cell derived blood-brain barrier model: applicability to studying antibody trigeered receptor mediated transcytosis. Fluids and Barrier of CNS 20. 36, 2023
Li B, Sodja C, Rukhlova M, Nhan J, Poole J, Allen H, Yimer S, Baumann E. Bedford E, Prazak H, Costain WJ, Murugkar St. St-Pierre JP, Mostaço-Guidolin L and Jezierski A. “Angiogenesis driven extracellular matrix remodeling of 3D bioprinted vascular networks”. Bioprinitng 30, e00258 2023
Huang J, Li B, Bloemberg D, Nguyen T, Charlebois C, Baumann E, Zafer A, Liu Q, Stanimirovic DB, McComb S and Jezierski A “Application of blood brain barrier models in pre-clinical assessment of glioblastoma-targeting CAR-T based immunotherapies”. Fluids and Barriers CNS 19(1):38, 2022
Sodja C, Callaghan D, Haqqani AS, Stanimirovic DB, Costain WJ and Jezierski A. “Immunoassay for quantitative detection of antibody transcytosis across the blood brain barrier in vitro”. Methods Mol Biol. Vol 2549, 2022
Charlebois C, Huang J, Sodja C, Ribecco-Lutkiewicz M, Baumann E, Stanimirovic BD and Jezierski A. “Development of a blood brain barrier permeability assay using human induced pluripotent stem cell derived brain endothelial cells.” Methods Mol Biol. 2022; 2452:397-410, 2021
Jezierski A, Baumann E, Corluka S, Aylswoth A, Banderali U, Sodja C, Ribecco-Lutkiewicz M, Alasmar S, Costain W, Martina M and Tauskela J. “Electrophysiological and neuropharmacological-based benchmarking of human induced pluripotent stem cell-derived and primary rodent neurons”. Stem Cell Rev and Rep Under review. 2020
Stanimirovic DB and Jezierski A. Blood–brain barrier models in pre-clinical assessment of CNS-targeting cell and gene therapies. Cell and Gene Therapy Insights 5(7):937-947, 2019
Alimoti JB, Ribecco-Lutkiewicz M, Sodja C, Jezierski A, Stanimirovic DB, Liu Q, Haqqani AS, Conlan, W and Bani-Yaghoub M. Zika virus crosses an in vitro human blood brain barrier model. Fluids and Barriers CNS 15(1):15, 2018
Ribecco-Lutkiewicz M, Sodja C, Haukenfrer, J, Haqqani AS, Li D, Zachar P, Baumann E, Ball M, Huang J, Rukhlova M, Martina M, Qing L, Stanimirovic DB, Jezierski A and Bani-Yaghoub, M. A novel human induced pluripotent stem cell blood-brain barrier model: Applicability to study antibody-triggered receptor-mediated transcytosis. Sci Rep 8(1):1873, 2018
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