Research Assistant Professor
Dr. Urban graduated from the Medical Academy in Gdansk, Poland in 1991. She completed her Pediatric Residency training at St. Vincent’s Hospital and Medical Center in Manhattan, NY in 1997 and subsequently served as a Chief Resident in 1997-98. From 1998 to 2001 Dr. Urban was a Pediatric Nephrology Fellow at Montefiore Medical Center and Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, NY and became board certified in Pediatric Nephrology. Dr. Urban continued her Research Nephrology Fellowship in Dr. Stanton's Laboratory in the Department of Physiology at the Dartmouth Medical School between 2001 and 2003.
Dr Urban became a Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Physiology at Dartmouth in July 2003 and is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center. She is the recipient of H. Shwachman Clinical Investigator Award from the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Dr. Swiatecka-Urban is also a Junior Investigator on a NIH established Centers of Biomedical Research Excellence (COBRE) grant to study the cellular and molecular mechanisms of lung disease.
Integral plasma membrane proteins such as ion channels must move to specific plasma membrane domains in polarized epithelial cells in order to function. In humans, several devastating diseases result from impaired intracellular trafficking. Cystic Fibrosis (CF) is an example of such a disease. CF is the most common lethal autosomal recessive disease in Caucasians.
The molecular defect in most CF patients results from mutation in the CF gene that leads to abnormal trafficking of the chloride channel known as the Cystic Fibrosis Transmembrane Conductance Regulator (CFTR). The consequences of impaired CFTR trafficking are grave and include chronic and irreversible lung colonization and infection with bacterium P. aeruginosa. There is currently no cure for CF. In addition, CFTR trafficking is not completely understood.
The long-term goals of Dr. Urban’s research are to:
- elucidate the molecular mechanisms of CFTR trafficking. Specifically, to investigate endocytosis and endocytic recycling of CFTR at the plasma membrane. Together with Drs. Stanton and Langford, Dr. Urban has been studying the role of unconventional molecular motors: myosin VI and V in CFTR endocytosis and recycling, respectively.
- study how P. aeruginosa affects CFTR trafficking in polarized epithelial cells in the lung and kidney. P. aeruginosa is the leading cause of infections in CF patients and is responsible for most of the morbidity and mortality in CF. It is currently impossible to permanently eradicate P. aeruginosa from the lungs of CF patients. Experimental therapy for CF focuses on increasing the trafficking of the mutant CFTR to the plasma membrane where it can function as a partially active chloride channel. It is currently unknown whether P. aeruginosa may interfere with future CF therapies and adversely affect the trafficking, expression, and function of the mutant CFTR in the plasma membrane.
Swiatecka-Urban A, (2003) Anti-Interleukin-2 Receptor Antibodies for Prevention of Rejection in
Pediatric Renal Transplant Patients: Current Status. Paediatr Drugs 5 (10): 699-716Castaneda MP, Swiatecka-Urban A, Mitsnefes MM, Feuerstein D, Kaskel FJ, Tellis V, Devarajan P. Activation of mitochondrial apoptotic pathways in human renal allografts after ischemiareperfusion injury.
Transplantation. 2003 Jul 15;76(1):50-4.
Swiatecka-Urban A, Duhaime M, Coutermarsh B, Karlson KH, Collawn J, Milewski M, Cutting GR, Guggino WB, Langford G, Stanton BA. PDZ domain interaction controls the endocytic recycling of the cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator.
J Biol Chem. 2002 Oct 18;277(42):40099-105.
Baird JS, Walker P, Urban AS, Berdella M (2002) Metabolic alkalosis and cystic fibrosis. Chest 122(2):755-6Glicklich D, Burris L, Urban AS (aka: Agnieszka Swiatecka-Urban), Tellis V, Greenstein S, Schechner R, Devarajan P, Croizat H (2001) Angiotensin Converting Enzyme Inhibitor Induces Apoptosis in Erythroid Precursors and and Affects Insulin-like Growth Factor-1 in Post Transplant Erythrocytosis. J Am Soc Nephrol 12(9):1958-64
Swiatecka-Urban A, Mokrzycki MH, Kaskel F, Da Silva F, Denamur E. Novel WT1 mutation (C388Y) in a female child with Denys-Drash syndrome.
Pediatr Nephrol. 2001 Aug;16(8):627-30.
Swiatecka-Urban A, Garcia C, Feuerstein D, Suzuki S, Devarajan P, Schechner R, Greenstein S, Tellis V, Kaskel F. Basiliximab induction improves the outcome of renal transplants in children and adolescents.
Pediatr Nephrol. 2001 Sep;16(9):693-6.