Dr. Bela Ozsvari

Current positions

Research Associate

Biography

I graduated from the University of Szeged, Hungary having completed an MSc in Biological Sciences in 2004. Then I started my PhD in the laboratory of Prof. Peter Hegyi and Prof. Zoltan Rakonczay at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Szeged. The main focus of my work was to study the role of trypsin on pancreatic duct epithelial cells in the early stage of pancreatitis. During this time, I visited the laboratory of Prof. Barry Argent at the University of Newcastle and after winning a Rosztoczy Scholarship to the USA I spent 12 months at the Boston University Medical Centre.

After completing my PhD I worked as a staff scientist at Avidin Biotechnology (Szeged, Hungary) where I worked on anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory and cytoprotective drug discovery projects, got involved also in the development of various in vitro and vivo drug screening technologies. During these years, we developed and patented a novel curcumin derivative, having potent anticancer activity against leukaemia and brain tumor.

In 2013 I joined the research group of Prof. Michael Lisanti as a research associate at the Institute of Cancer Sciences, University of Manchester, focusing on the development of drugs targeting cancer stem cells and tumor metabolism in breast cancer metastasis. We showed that several antibiotics, including doxycycline, target mitochondrial biogenesis and can eradicate breast cancer stem cells, a treatment which might help stop metastasis.

I took up my current role as a Research Associate Fellow at the Biomedical Research Centre of University of Salford in May 2017. Here, we recently discovered senolytic (anti-aging) properties of the well-known antibiotic, azithromycin.