News

The Dresden International Graduate School for Biomedicine and Bioengineering (DIGS-BB) and four institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic have started a new collaboration on the education of doctoral students.

The end of the year is a time of social gatherings. And so, after a two-year covid break, we met together with the IBT management to evaluate the past year and look to the future.

The latest upgrades, instruments, and staff changes of the Centre of Molecular Structure

The most prestigious scientific grant awarded by the European Research Council, the ERC Synergy Grant, goes to the team of Zdenek Lánský from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in the BIOCEV center. With French and American colleagues, he will investigate the function of a protein called tubulin, which is significantly involved in the transport of substances inside cells. ...

A new study focused on the structure and function of natural killer cell surface receptors was recently published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications. The study comes from the research teams of Dr. Ondřej Vaněk from the Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Science, Charles University, and Dr. Jan Dohnálek from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

A new protein that plays a key role during sperm-egg adhesion and fusion has been discovered by an international team led by Kateřina Komrsková from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences at the BIOCEV Centre and the Faculty of Science of Charles University in Prague. The researchers also developed special cell cultures for the “production” of human oocyte proteins. ...

Small angle X-ray scattering is a powerful method for in solution characterization of macromolecular structures. The course will provide practical experience with the data collection and processing. The data processing will focus on usage of ATSAS software package. Participants are encouraged to bring their own laptops. Application: Please, apply at the following link: HERE The number of participants is limited. ...

The aim of the two-day meeting held on June 2-3 was to evaluate the research results and plans for further activities of six research laboratories, i.e. half of the Institute of Biotechnology operating in the BIOCEV center. Members of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute of Biotechnology of the CAS (SAB) and two external members of the IBT Board met for this purpose for the first time since the establishment of the SAB in 2021.

A team of scientists and physicians from the Institute of Biotechnology of the CAS at the BIOCEV centre and the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine in Prague has demonstrated a positive effect of MitoTam on type 2 diabetes. The research was published in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.

A research team led by Professor Jiří Neužil from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic at the BIOCEV center described the effect of the Czech anti-cancer substance MitoTam in combination with immunotherapy on kidney tumors.

#ScienceForUkraine is a community group of volunteer students and research scientists from academic institutions in Europe and around the world. Its mission is to collect and disseminate information about support opportunities at the university, national, and international level for graduate students and researchers directly affiliated to an academic institution in Ukraine. ...

In an open letter the Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences appeals to Russian scientists to strongly condemn the aggression against Ukraine.

This year, six group leaders have received EMBO Installation Grants. One of them, and the only recipient in the Czech Republic, is Kateřina Rohlenová from the Institute of Biotechnology AS CR in the BIOCEV centre, who is also a recent holder of a prestigious ERC grant.

Mgr. Katerina Rohlenova, Ph.D. from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences at the BIOCEV Centre has been awarded the most prestigious European scientific grant by the European Research Council (ERC). She will receive EUR 1.5 million (approximately CZK 38 million) over five years for her innovative research into metabolic communication in tumours.

Testing of samples for the presence of SARS-CoV-2 virus by PCR in the BIOCEV centre is available only for employees of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Charles University who work at the Biotechnology and Biomedicine Centre in Vestec. Interested members of the public, companies and other institutions can use testing centres in the vicinity of BIOCEV and Prague.

One of the few projects that the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic will support within the JUNIOR STAR competition starting 2022 is project "Intercellular communication of nucleotides: a neglected goal for new anti-cancer approaches".

Excellent scientists have received the Award of the President of the Czech Science Foundation (GACR) for outstanding results in grant projects, which was exceptionally presented this year by GACR Vice President Stanislava Hronová. The prestigious prize for the best basic research was awarded to Zdeněk Lánský (Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences)

On Thursday, September 30, the Institute of Biotechnology welcomed a distinguished guest, Noel Barrett.

The Institute of Biotechnology (IBT) and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry (IOCB Prague), both part of the Czech Academy of Sciences, have signed a licensing agreement with the company Immunotech, a subsidiary of Beckman Coulter, for the manufacture and distribution of a newly developed coronavirus antibody IVD test. ...

A new study from the Institute of Biotechnology’s Molecular Therapeutics Laboratory led by Prof. Jiří Neužil in collaboration with Prof. Karel Pacák’s group from the National Institute of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA), which led to the discovery of eight SUCLG2 gene variants in patients with neuroendocrine tumours, puts SUCLG2 on the list of genes whose pathogenic germline variations may increase the risk of cancer development due to misregulation of cellular metabolism. ...

Contractility is an essential biological process enabling cells to divide, move and change their shape. The established understanding of cell contractility is based on the action of myosin motor proteins sliding actin filaments relative to each other. ...

On the 1st of July 2021 the molecular-scale biophysics EU programme MOSBRI commences operation.

CMS introduces new crystallization hotel RI182 dedicated to low temperatures

Recently we have proposed “Non-cognate Ligand Strategy (NCLS) as a promising approach for the development of scaffold-derived epitope-mimicking proteins as vaccine immunogens. To support this approach, we developed a set of proteins called Myomedins that stimulated production of HIV-1 neutralizing antibodies in immunized mice. These variants mimic gp41/Env epitope recognized by broadly neutralizing antibody 10E8 and have potential to serve as HIV-1 vaccine components. ...

The Centre of Molecular Structure (CMS) would like to invite you to a IUCr satelite joint workshop with CCP4/CCP-EM.

The congress principal topics are Biological and macromolecular crystallography; Physics and fundamental crystallography; Materials and minerals; Chemical crystallography, crystal structures; Methods and instruments; Theory, computation, modelling, data, standards.

The team of the Laboratory of Tumour Resistance and Service technology laboratory (both Institute of Biotechnology, Czech Academy of Sciences (IBT, CAS) has developed a novel anti-cancer drug that interferes with mitochondrial iron metabolism. ...

Read an Open letter to the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, a kind request for support of EMBO grants for the Czech Republic in the form of increasing the number of awarded EMBO installation grants to two to three newly supported grants per year and securing funds for their implementation from the state budget.

The Centre of Molecular Structure would like to invite you to an Instruct-ERIC course in Biophysics, structural mass spectrometry, and X-ray techniques.

The Centre of Molecular Structure introduces its newsletter with updates on its core facilities: new instruments, upgrades of current instruments, or the brand new Protein Production facility. You will find details in attachment. You can realize your projects at CMS via an online application at ciisb.org/open-access/proposal-submission Find out more information at ciisb.org, ibt.cas.cz/core-facility/CMS/ or contact magdalena.schneiderova@ibt.cas.cz, jan.dohnalek@ibt.cas. ...

The Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, together with the Faculty of Science, Charles University, offers regular COVID-19 testing for businesses. The test analyses a saliva sample using the PCR technology (testing for the direct presence of a virus’s genetic code in a sample) using certified test kits supplied by the Czech company DIANA Biotechnologies s.r.o. It is the most reliable method that does not require an unpleasant nasopharyngeal swab. ...

The European Union’s Horizon 2020 INFRAIA programme has awarded a 5 M€ infrastructure grant to MOSBRI (Molecular-Scale Biophysics Research Infrastructure www.mosbri.eu), a consortium of 13 academic centres of excellence and 2 industrial partners from 11 different European countries, coordinated by Institut Pasteur (Paris, France).

The research team of Dr. Kateřina Komrsková from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic at the BIOCEV centre, which studies causes of infertility, has filed two international patents that are of key importance for the advancement of assisted reproduction. The first patent documents how to determine sperm quality with extreme accuracy. ...

At the end of last year, the Czech Science Foundation (GAČR) completed an evaluation of project proposals accepted for public tender in research, experimental development and innovation to support basic research grant projects.

A proof of concept methodology to identify protein structures that could be converted into engineered protein scaffolds.

Featuring expert speakers from Instruct Centres across Europe, the Instruct-ERIC webinar series, Structure Meets Function, highlights some of the latest developments in structural biology, demonstrating how integrative methods are enabling scientists to decipher the mechanisms that underpin health and disease.

The Biological Laboratory of the ELIBIO project at ELI Beamlines was officially opened 20th of January 2021 by Robert Plaga the Minister of Education, Youth and Sports, Eva Zažímalová the President of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Michael Prouza Director of the Insitute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

The Centre of Molecular Structure has launched online applications of new research projects into its newest facility Protein Production. If you wish to use the services of Protein Production or any of our other facilities, submit your application via the CIISB online form.

Three international research teams succeded in elucidation of a unique molecular mechanism, which enables bacteria, including pathogens, to maintain the flow of genetic information from DNA to RNA. The discovery leads to new possibilities of development of the much needed antimicrobials against serious pathogens, including the causative agent of tuberculosis. Their discoveries have been published in the journal Nature Communications.

The Centre of Molecular Structure is introducing a new addition to the Structural Mass Spectrometry facility – timsTOF Pro.

We report on a unique glass microfluidic Y-system with planar immunocapture channel working in so-called stop-flow dynamic regime.

Our study on interactions between human PSMA and an RNA-based aptamer on Nucl Acid Res cover page

In October 2020 a new research group started at the Institute of Biotechnology (IBT) of the Czech Academy of Sciences located at the BIOCEV center. Head of the group, Dr. Katerina Rohlenova, returned to the Czech Republic after a postdoctoral stay in the laboratory of Prof. Peter Carmeliet at the Center for Cancer Biology (VIB-KU Leuven) in Belgium, where she studied metabolism of cells that form blood vessels in tumors. At IBT Katerina teamed-up with Dr. ...

MAXIMISING THE ACCESSIBILITY OF RESEARCH RESULTS IN THE FIGHT AGAINST COVID-19

Join us in an online seminar on the overview of the new generation of Monolith platform and Prometheus Panta with DLS option.

We will be happy if you send us your comments and suggestions by e-mail to: stanislav.samek@ibt.cas.cz

We are happy to announce that starting July 1st the Centre of Molecular Structure opened a new Protein Production facility.

Enables real-time high throughput screening of cellular proliferation, death, migration and other applications

An international team led by researchers from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences describes a mechanism underlying transport of organelles within cells. The work shows how long-range transport can efficiently work in crowded cellular environments.

We have published a unique automated methods of nucleic acid classification and annotation.

Cerebral stroke is one of the leading causes of death and long-term disability worldwide. It affects primarily the elderly population and is typically recognized as a disease associated with aging. However, it remains unknown how such an age-dependent vulnerability develops, and what are the underlying mechanisms. ...

Diffraction methods are capable to determine 3D atomic structures of biomolecules (e.g. proteins and DNA), essential for the design of drugs and biotechnological applications, etc. A new tool PAIREF, developed at CTU in close collaboration with IBT, provides a comprehensive analysis of experimental data resolution that leads to an optimal accuracy of the structures.

The Centre of Molecular Structure introduces its newsletter with updates on its 4 core facilities: new instruments, upgrades of current instruments, or the new service „Crystallization and Diffraction screening from your couch“. You will find details in attachment.

Scientists from the Institute of Biotechnology of the Academy of Sciences are part of the team of the BIOCEV center, which is led by RNDr. Ruth Tachezy has developed and validated a new reliable SARS-CoV-2 virus detection procedure that allows up to hundreds of samples to be evaluated daily from hospital patients and nursing home clients.

If the cancer cells have little or extremely much iron, they will not be able to cope and die, "describes one of the possible future strategies to fight cancer Mgr. JAROSLAV TRUKSA, Ph.D. D., from the Institute of Biotechnology of the CAS.

From 8 to 10 October, the Institute of Biotechnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic organized a workshop funded by the European research infrastructure Instruct - ERIC on computational approaches in the integration of structural biology techniques. The event was attended by 20 registered participants and 18 speakers.

This year's Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine goes to the Americans William G. Kaelin and Gregg L. Semenza and the British Sir Peter J. Ratcliffe, whose discoveries made it possible to understand the essence of one of the key adaptive systems for human and other animal life. They have discovered the molecular mechanisms by which cells sense and respond to available oxygen levels.

Increased level of bilirubin, product of red blood cells metabolism, in blood can be symptomatic for liver diseases, such as cirrhosis or hepatitis, or for bile duct diseases.

AIDS is one of the most serious diseases having claimed more than 35 million lives so far.

The Liblice Chateau, Czech Republic, May 24-25, 2019.

The sympathetic nervous system plays a critical role in stimulating heart rate and contractility to increase cardiac output and thereby insure adequate tissue O2 delivery. Altered sympathetic output contributes to cardiac pathologies, such as sudden cardiac death ...

The Centre of Molecular Structure would like to invite you to workshop

Sensory systems develop primary topographic maps of sensory inputs that are projected by sensory neurons to the brain, for example topographical maps of the skin and retina, somatosensory space, and auditory tonotopic map according to sound frequency.

Researchers from the Institute of Biotechnology of the ASCR at the BIOCEV recently showed that cancer cells with mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) disorders must regain respiration by "stealing" mitochondria with undamaged mtDNA from surrounding, non-cancerous cells after introduction into laboratory mice.

The Trest Castle, Czech Republic, May 17-19, 2018.

A laboratory Small Angle X-ray Scattering device has just been delivered at the CMS: SAXSpoint 2.0 instrument with dedicated high flux LiquidMetal Jet C2+ X-ray source, Eiger 1M detector and in situ UV/Vis spectrophotometric probe.

An Instruct, CIISB and the Institute of Biotechnology of the CAS, v. v. i. course took place at the CMS, IBT, BIOCEV on April 5 and 6, 2018.

The Trest Castle, May 18-20, 2017

After obtaining the certificate of Good Laboratory Practice (GLP) in January 2017, the Centre for Preclinical Testing (CPT) commenced activities with the support of the Czech Academy of Science (CAS). The primary mission of the CPT is to perform preclinical testing of substances that have successfully passed through basic research, and thus to contribute towards the development of new pharmaceuticals to combat life-threatening diseases, including those currently difficult to cure.

Czech scientists have never been this close to finding a cure for breast cancer. After four years, they have succeeded in developing an agent that can entirely destroy cells of one of the most aggressive forms of cancer. In the Czech Republic, up to 20% of all breast cancer patients suffer from this form of cancer. The preparation, called MitoTam, has successfully passed laboratory tests and clinical trials. This year, human clinical trials are planned to be launched.

On November, 28 - 29, 2016, a symposium "Frontiers in targeted modulation of protein function" was held at the BIOCEV center. The symposium was jointly organized by the Institute of Biotechnology CAS, v. v. i. (IBT) and the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS) and was financially supported by the Czech Academy of Sciences and the Czech government. Normal 0 21 false false false CS X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table. ...

On 22 September 2016, the Czech Infrastructure for Integrative Structural Biology (CIISB) became a full-fledged INSTRUCT center based on a unanimous decision of the members of the INSTRUCT Council. This huge success will enable the Center for Molecular Structure (CMS) at BIOCEV and the structural-biological service laboratories of CEITEC to offer its services officially under the banner of the INSTRUCT research infrastructure.

On Tuesday, August 30, 2016, the Institute of Biotechnology of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IBT) was visited by two representatives of the Weizmann Institute of Science (WIS), Prof. Irit Sagi and Dr. Jakub Abramson. To our great delight, invitation to visit IBT was also accepted by His Excellency Israeli Ambassador to the Czech Republic, Gary Koren. The guests were welcome by director of the BIOCEV center, prof. Pavel Martásek, and by IBT group leader Dr. Bohdan Schneider.

The Trest Castle, May 26-28, 2016

On July 6, 2016, two scientists from the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel) visited the BIOCEV. Dr. Orly Dym and Prof. Joel Sussman were interested in the D8 Venture diffractometer with its unique combination of high-flux liquid Gallium anode X-ray source, Photon II detector and the ISX plate for in-situ diffraction tests and data collection. All instruments are part of the BIOCEV´s Core Facility – Centre of Molecular Structure (CMS), operated by the Institute of Biotechnology CAS.

In the June volume of the Czech mutation of the Scientific American journal a special section about the Institute of Biotechnology CAS, v. v. i. was published.

Last year, the Institute underwent the Evaluation of the Research and Professional Activities of the Institutes of the CAS for the period 2010-2014.

At the end of last year, the implementation of the project "Introduction of new research methods into the BIOCEV center", implemented by the Institute of Biotechnology AS CR, v. I., Was completed. The total subsidy for the project exceeded 32 million crowns.

Dne 7. 10. 2015 vydalo Ministerstvo školství, mládeže a tělovýchovy Rozhodnutí o poskytnutí dotace na financování projektu "Vnesení nových výzkumných metod do centra BIOCEV", jehož realizátorem je Biotechnologický ústav Akademie věd, v. v. i. Projekt bude financován z prostředků EU a státního rozpočtu ČR prostřednictvím Operačního programu Výzkum a vývoj pro inovace (OP VaVpI) a celková dotace na projekt přesáhne 36 milionů Kč.

A central question in developmental biology is how the original fertilized oocyte gives rise to a complex organism made up of hundreds of different cell types. The key mechanism is assymetric cell division that produces daughter cells with uneven distribution of deterministic biomolecules leading to different fates.