The prestigious HR Excellence in Research Award is granted by the European Commission to institutions that have demonstrated excellence in human resources management and support for researchers. The Institute of Microbiology of the CAS has recently received this award. Ensuring high quality and transparent working conditions for both existing and incoming research staff is the…
Leoš Valášek from the Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IMIC) has been elected a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO). The prestigious EMBO community is currently represented by more than 2000 scientists from all over the world. This year, Valášek became one of 120 newly admitted members, thus placing…
The rapid response of both yeast and mammalian cells to a changing environment is an important prerequisite for their survival. The transcription factor Gcn4p helps yeast cells to react quickly to the availability of amino acids in the environment and to adapt their metabolism accordingly. The activity of this factor can be regulated at the…
Jan Čapek won the institutional PhD Thesis Competition. He is working on uncovering the importance of manganese in bacteria, one of which is Bordetella pertussis that causes whooping cough. “In my PhD thesis, I discovered that B. pertussis accumulates high amounts of manganese, but at the same time has a genetic trick that helps it…
After the success of last year’s summer school, the Czech Immunological Society together with the Institute of Microbiology of the CAS is once again organizing a summer school on the topic of Tumor Microenvironment and Immunity. The event will take place from June 26 to June 29, 2024 in the beautiful surroundings of Chateau Nové…
Like every April, the Czech immunological Society (CIS) in collaboration with the Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IMIC) celebrated the International Day of Immunology. The celebration began with a preliminary event on the 24th of April 2024, the CYI Mixer, which was dedicated to young researchers and organized by the Czech…
Daniil Starenko won the institutional Master Thesis Competition with his research on polymer conjugates, which could help in the treatment of cancer. During his master’s studies, his main topic was biochemistry, but now he is focusing on immunology in his PhD project. “The research topics at the Laboratory of Tumor Immunology have always interested me…
The Institute of Microbiology in Prague and Palacky University in Olomouc shared their instrumentation and reported in their paper that cyclic traveling wave ion mobility mass spectrometry (IM-MS) reveals an N → O peptidyl shift in singly protonated cyclosporin A (CsA), an important immunosuppressant used in transplantation surgeries, to isocyclosporin (isoA). This is a problem…
On March 21, 2024, professor Haruki Okamura, who works at Hyogo College of Medicine at the Department of Tumor Immunology and Cell Therapy in Japan, gave a lecture at the IMIC. Professor Haruki Okamura discovered and first cloned and studied interleukin-18 (IL-18), characterizing the various immunological activities of this molecule. His lecture “Biology…
With a lack of oxygen or nutrients, cells are subject to stress. The fate of a stressed cell is largely controlled by the protein ATF4. It ensures that cells quickly recover from stress and do not become dangerous for their surroundings – for example, by uncontrolled division that could lead to malignancy. Scientists from the…