Piotr completed his PhD at the Institute of Plant Genetics, Polish Academy of Sciences in Poznań, where he studied the evolution of Brassicaceae genome architecture. He joined Adam Mickiewicz University in 2005 and later held research positions at the University of Manchester and the University of Cambridge. His work at Cambridge contributed to the discovery of the heterozygosity juxtaposition effect and the identification of HEI10 as a limiting crossover factor.

In 2016, he returned to Adam Mickiewicz University to establish his own research group, which became the Laboratory of Genome Biology in 2019. As a young principal investigator, he studied the role of the histone variant H2A.Z in transcriptional regulation and plant stress responses. His team now investigates the molecular mechanisms of meiotic recombination in plants, with particular emphasis on the factors shaping crossover frequency and chromosomal distribution, including interhomolog polymorphism and chromatin state. The group’s applied research aims to control crossover number and targeting during meiosis to develop new strategies for modern plant breeding.

He was awarded the title of Professor of Biological Sciences in 2022 and has served as Director of the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology since 2026. Research in Piotr’s team is supported by EMBO, the Foundation for Polish Science, and numerous grants from the National Science Centre.