Lukasz Ciesla

Dr. Ciesla is an assistant professor at the Department of Biological Sciences. He is interested in the use of naturally occurring molecules as new potential medicines. He is especially passionate about dietary chemicals and their capacity to prevent or delay the onset of chronic aging-associated diseases, such as Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’ disease, diabetes, arthritis, etc. His research is currently supported by NIH and NSF. 

Representative Publications 

  1. GardeninA confers neuroprotection against environmental toxin in a Drosophila model of Parkinson’s disease, U. Maitra, T. Harding, Q. Liang, L. Ciesla. Commun Biol 4:162, 2021.
  2. Identification of TrkB binders from complex matrix using magnetic nanoplatform. C. Arituluk, J. Horne, B. Adhikari, J. Steltzner, S. Mansur, P. Ahirwar, S. Velu, N. Gray, L. Ciesla. ACS Appl. Bio Mater.  4:6244–6255Z, 2021.
  3. Cell-membrane coated iron oxide nanoparticles for isolation and specific identification of drug leads from complex matrices. J. Sherwood, J. Sowell, N. Beyer, J. Irvin, C. Stephen, A. J. Antone, Y. Bao, L.  Ciesla. Nanoscale 11:6352-6359, 2019.
  4. Using Drosophila as a platform for drug discovery from natural products in Parkinson’s disease, U. Maitra, L. Ciesla. Med Chem Commun. 10:867–879, 2019.
  5. Dissecting the Role of NF-κb Protein Family and Its Regulators in Rheumatoid Arthritis Using Weighted Gene Co-Expression Network, J.S.M. Sabir, A.E. Omri, B. Banaganapalli, M. A. Al-Shaeri, N. A. Alkenani, M. J. Sabir, N. H. Hajrah, H. Zrelli, L. Ciesla, K. K. Nasser, R. Elango, N. A. Shaik, M. Khan. Frontiers in Genetics, 10:1163, 2019. 

Research Interests ​

The research in the Ciesla lab has focused on the identification of naturally occurring molecules with potential to prevent and/or treat chronic aging-associated diseases. Our laboratory has been involved in the development of innovative tools used in the identification of most promising compounds that can be developed into new drugs. Our team has been also focusing on understanding molecular mechanism of action of natural compounds using a plethora of in vitro and in vivo techniques.