Katarzyna Starowicz

Maj Institute of Pharmacology, Academy of Sciences, Poland

Katarzyna Starowicz obtained her PhD at Utrecht University, the Kingdom of the Netherlands studying the involvement of melanocortins, with particular attention to MC4 receptor, in the mechanisms of opioid antinociception. Continuing her interest in pain research during post-doctoral internship in the Endocannabinoid Research Group supervised by Prof. Vincenzo Di Marzo she had the opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary environment studying the role of TRPV1 receptors located in the CNS and their possible involvement in pain and nociception. Subsequently, her research interests expanded to include the issue of degenerative joint disease (osteoarthritis, OA). Currently she is a neuropharmacologist and a head of the Department of Neurochemistry at the Maj Institute of Pharmacology of the Polish Academy of Sciences in Kraków (PL). She specializes in the strategies of chronic pain treatment, especially in extending the effectiveness of neuropathic and osteoarthritis pain therapy through targeting the endogenous cannabinoid system. Group’s interest is also focused on effects of endocannabinoids’ regulation of the motivational tone and cognitive impairment in chronic pain.