A student of the Faculty of Biology at the University of Warsaw in the 2nd edition of the MedConnect programme

27 04 2026

Emilia Bednarska, a second-year student of the second-cycle degree programme in Medical Biotechnology at the Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw, has been selected as one of the eight participants in this year’s edition of the MedConnect internship programme, organised by MSD Poland and the Medical Research Agency.

MedConnect is a one-year paid internship programme carried out within the framework of the Warsaw Health Innovation Hub – a public-private cooperation platform operating under the auspices of the Medical Research Agency. The programme was created in cooperation with universities and responds to the growing needs of the labour market in the area of the modern pharmaceutical industry and healthcare. Its aim is to support the development of future leaders in the biomedical sector and to strengthen dialogue between science, business, and public administration.

In this year’s second edition of the programme, eight interns representing seven universities in Poland began their internships at MSD Poland. Participants have the opportunity to engage in projects related, among others, to clinical trials and access to therapies, gaining specialist knowledge and practical experience. The internships will continue until April 2027.

Emilia Bednarska is preparing her master’s thesis under the supervision of Professor Magdalena Winiarska from the Department of Immunology at the Mossakowski Medical Research Institute of the Polish Academy of Sciences and Dr Ewa Kozłowska from the Department of Immunology at the Faculty of Biology, University of Warsaw. Her scientific interests focus on immunology, oncology, and cancer immunotherapy.

In her research so far, she has studied mechanisms of resistance to CAR-T therapy in haematological cancers as part of a scientific scholarship carried out within a National Science Centre project at the Department of Immunology of the Mossakowski Medical Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences. Her most important achievements include co-authoring the publication “The race between 4-1BB- and CD28-based CD19 CAR-T products in the therapy of B-cell malignancies” in Biochimica et Biophysica Acta – Reviews on Cancer and winning second place at the international WIMC conference, where she presented the results of her research.

We warmly congratulate Emilia Bednarska and wish her every success in the internship.