27. Jan. 2025
or what we achieved together in the past year:
Václav Šeda received a prestigious junior grant during the opening ceremony of the European Hematology Association (EHA) Congress in Madrid. This EHA grant is one of the most prestigious awards in the field of hematology research and it is only awarded to 2–5 haematologists per year across the continent.
Edgar Montugar prestigious grant under the EIC Pathfinder Open Programme. Out of 1,110 project proposals, only 45 were selected - an overall success rate of just 4%. Edgar Montufar is the only Czech coordinator of the ambitious international BiCeps project, which aims to create a new type of actuator that mimics natural muscle movement through additive manufacturing.
Michal Urbánek, the main coordinator of the CzechNanoLab research infrastructure, succeeded in the OP JAK - Research Infrastructures I. grant call. With a staggering 78 points out of 80, the CzechNanoLab+ modernisation project became the most successful project in this call and was supported with CZK 361 million. The project will increase the range of services provided by the infrastructure through the introduction of new promising nanofabrication and characterisation technologies and the renewal of ageing key equipment.
Twenty-five talented PhD candidates were awarded in the Brno PhD Talent competition by the City of Brno. CEITEC had five representatives – Thomas Peter Fellmeth, Péter Kacz, Anna Kurowská, Lucie Nepovímová, and Marek Zálešák.
A research team led by Marek Mráz discovered that chronic lymphocytic leukemic cells can resist the treatment by a non-genetic mechanism, i.e. without mutations as previously known. Their findings have been published in The Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI).
Scientists from the CT LAB CEITEC led by Markéta Kaiser joined forces with an international team of biologists and the University of British Columbia (UBC), Canada, to develop a unique 3D atlas of developing cartilage in second trimester human embryos. The atlas was part of a study published in Nature Scientific Data.
A researcher team headed by Jan Hejátko has succeeded in proving that some of the processes by which plants cope with environmental stress and which have so far been demonstrated in the experimental plant Arabidopsis thaliana also work in common crops such as oilseed rape (Brassica napus). These findings bring the scientists closer to practical solutions – making crops more resilient to adverse conditions. A key aspect of the research was published in the Journal of Experimental Botany.
Jakub Lázňovský and colleagues from CT LAB CEITEC published a unique 3D atlas that captures the matamorphosis of the frog Xenopus laevis using micro-CT. This frog serves as a key model organism in the field of developmental biology.
Pavel Plevka's research team has now described the structure and replication cycle of the bacteriophage JBD30, which infects and kills Pseudomonas aeruginosa. This bacterium causes life-threatening infections in people with weakened immune systems. The research results were published in the EMBO Journal.
Petr Neugebauer's team unveiled a state-of-the-art 329 GHz electron spin resonance (ESR) spectrometer equipped with dynamic nuclear polarization (DNP). This cutting-edge instrument will help scientists understand protein structure and design new drugs.
Luboš Brabenec and Ľubomíra Nováková have successfully tested a new therapy that combines home brain stimulation with online speech therapy support. This innovative method, using a portable stimulator and special speech therapy techniques, has shown significant improvement in speech difficulties associated with Parkinson's disease.
Daniel Zicha and his colleagues at the Biophotonics Core Facility are investigating whether some of the drugs that have been approved for other purposes have the side effect of slowing or even stopping the spread of cancer cells. The problem with cancer is not just the tumour itself, but its spread in the form of metastases.
CEITEC consortium hosted a scientific ERC conference at CEITEC Masaryk University. The conference had an exclusive line-up – ERC President Maria Leptin, who was in the Czech Republic for a two-day visit, and 12 holders of prestigious ERC grants conducting research in the Czech Republic. Current ERC Scientific Council member Alice Valkárová took also part in the programme.