Research: It’s a Family Affair

After earning his MD (1990) and his PhD (1995) in tumor pathology, Markiewski became an instructor for the school’s pathology department.

During those years, Magdalena Karbowniczek, MD, PhD, a Szczecin native, enrolled in the same Polish university. A few years later, she joined Markiewski’s department, also as a pathologist.

“We shared a passion about pathology and some science at the beginning, and we also taught students,” Markiewski recalls. “Madga was actually my student, but I didn’t know her until she joined the department.”

In 1997, Markiewski and Karbowniczek married, and though they both were successful in Poland, Markiewski wanted to pursue a scientific career. He accepted a postdoctoral position at the University of Pennsylvania. A few months after their arrival in the U.S., Karbowniczek found work as a postdoctoral researcher at Philadelphia’s Fox Chase Cancer Center.

“We quit everything in Poland to start an entirely new career,” Markiewski said. “We took enormous risks to pursue our dreams here. We were already accomplished doctors in Poland with good reputations, but we decided to come here anyway. My initial salary was $26,000 per year with double doctorate degrees. That is how it started for us in the United States.”

Once they were settled, Markiewski began applying for independent research positions. His search took him to the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH) National Cancer Institute (NCI) and several private companies. He eventually made his way to TTUHSC in Abilene, Texas, to interview with Jon Weidanz, PhD, a faculty researcher at the pharmacy school and founding chair for the school’s Department of Immunotherapeutics and Biotechnology. Markiewski told Weidanz that he also needed a job for Karbowniczek, and the couple returned for additional interviews.

“We came to Abilene and they liked us; they also liked us as scientists, so we got two positions,” Markiewski says. “In addition, we fell in love with the people in Abilene, which perhaps was a strong factor in motivating us to accept jobs here. This is how we started to collaborate, because our labs were basically one lab.”

Markiewski, who has been in Abilene since 2010, has established himself as an immunologist specializing in cancer immunotherapy and the biology of innate immunity (the body’s first barrier against disease and infection). He has received grants from agencies such as the NCI, NIH and U.S. Department of Defense.

Karbowniczek, also in Abilene since 2010, has established her own reputation as a cancer biologist with expertise in basic molecular mechanisms that regulate the transformation of normal cells into malignant tumor cells. One of her projects, currently supported by a NIH grant, is investigating a pulmonary disease called LAM (lymphangioleiomyomatosis), which occurs exclusively in women.

“We discovered that several molecular mechanisms that my lab studies in the context of cancer cells also regulate the function of immune cells that fight malignant tumors, which Maciej studies,” Karbowniczek points out. “We also collaborate and support each other in our daily work, and most of our recently published papers are a product of this collaborative effort.”

One of their current collaborative efforts, a research publication they recently submitted to “Communications Biology,” a peer-reviewed scientific journal, included their 18-year-old son, Jan Markiewski, a computer programming and data analysis learner. Jan, who completed an internship at Harvard Medical School, recently returned to Abilene after an exchange program in Germany. He contributed his computer and data analysis expertise to that publication.

“Our entire family is now in the science business,” Markiewski says. “Jan is very invested in this, and he can do a lot with computer programming and data analysis, so like with me and Magda, our expertise synergizes. We always have each other’s support, which I think is the key to getting through any struggles and problems at home and at work.”

—By Mark Hendricks