Bartosz Grzywacz

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Credentials

MD

Bio

Dr. Grzywacz is a hematopathologist whose research interests include the development, normal function, and diseases involving natural killer (NK) cells as well as their therapeutic potential. NK cells are specialized lymphocytes of the innate immune system that possess some of the cell memory capabilities characteristic of cells found in the adaptive immune system. They originate in the bone marrow and lymph nodes and are important effector cells for anti-tumor immunity.Grzywacz was part of a team that developed an in-vitro system for producing NK cells from hematopoietic stem cells and human embryonic stem cells. NK cells produced through this process bore biomarkers associated with potent cell-killing activity and are equipped to attack and clear tumor cells. Grzywacz's research with Michael Verneris, Jeffrey Miller and others on the development of NK cells using an in-vitro system revealed that these cells may be derived from myeloid developmental pathway. Some human CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells develop into NK cells when stimulated by the several cytokines including interleukin-7, interleukin-15, and stem cell factor. Grzywacz and his colleagues were able to define the conditions under which myeloid precursor cells tend to produce NK cells and found that NK cells produced through this process possess high levels of cytotoxicity. More recently investigators found that some of the cells thought to be NK cell precursors that failed to differentiate into mature NK cells constitute a novel innate lymphoid cell type.Research interest in NK-cell origin, function and potential enhancement of NK cells for tumor immunotherapy is part of a wave of interest in immunotherapy based on significant advances in the field in the past decade. Grzywacz plans to renew his studies of NK cells from the point of view of pathology in three ways: NK-cell use in immunotherapy; the role of NK cells in cancers other than hematologic malignancies; and lymphoid malignancies that originate from NK cells including aggressive neoplasms associated with Epstein-Barr virus infection.

Research Summary

Publications

• Weinberg OK, Chisholm KM, Ok CY, Fedoriw Y, Grzywacz B, Kurzer JH, Mason EF, Moser KA, Bhattacharya S, Xu M, Babu D, Foucar K, Tam W, Bagg A, Orazi A, George TI, Wang W, Wang SA, Arber DA, Hasserjian RP Clinical, immunophenotypic and genomic findings of NK lymphoblastic leukemia: a study from the Bone Marrow Pathology Group.
  Modern Pathology. 2021 Feb 01. doi:10.1038/s41379-021-00739-4, 10.1038/s41379-021-00739-4
• Obeid KM, Grzywacz B, Ferrieri P, Arbefeville S, Slungaard A, Betts B. Hemophagocytic lymphohistiocytosis induced by Toxoplasma gondii infection diagnosed by a bone marrow biopsy and DNA next-generation sequencing in an allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplant recipient. Transpl Infect Dis. 2021;:e13610. doi:10.1111/tid.13610, 10.1111/tid.13610
• Amy K. Erbe, Wei Wang, Lakeesha Carmichael, Anna Hoefges, Bartosz Grzywacz, Patrick K. Reville, Erik A. Ranheim, Jacquelyn A. Hank, KyungMann Kim, Songwon Seo, Eneida A. Mendonca, Yiqiang Song, Vaishalee P. Kenkre, Fangxin Hong, Randy D. Gascoyne, Elisabeth Paietta, Sandra J. Horning, Jeffrey S. Miller, Brad Kahl, and Paul M. Sondel.Follicular lymphoma patients with KIR2DL2 and KIR3DL1 and their ligands (HLA-C1 and HLA-Bw4) show improved outcome when receiving rituximab.J Immunother Cancer. 2019; 7: 70. doi: 10.1186/s40425-019-0538-8
• Gilles SR, Yohe SL, Linden MA, Dolan M, Hirsch B, Grzywacz B. CD161 Is expressed in a subset of T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia cases and Is useful for disease follow-up.Am J Clin Pathol. 2019 Sep 9;152(4):471-478. doi: 10.1093/ajcp/aqz060.
• Grzywacz B, Moench L, McKenna D Jr, Tessier KM, Bachanova V, Cooley S, Miller JS, Courville EL.  Natural killer cell homing and persistence in the bone marrow after adoptive immunotherapy correlates with better leukemia control.  J Immunother. 2018 Nov 28. doi: 10.1097/CJI.0000000000000250.