we would like invite you to join the Life Sciences Seminar in the autumn semester!
Below, you can find detailed information about course registration and also more information about a few of the speakers in the upcoming semester. Please note the number of attendances required if you register for a course.
The lectures will be organized in classic in-person form. (However, in case of worsening of the situation with covid-19, we will be prepared to switch into an online form.)
If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact Lucie Nesvadbova at lus@sci.muni.cz.
Prof. Andrew deMello will give his talk Rise of the Micromachines: Biology on the Small Scale on September 16, 2021 as a part of Mendel Lectures.
His group is engaged in a wide range of activities in the general area of microfluidics and nanoscale science. Primary specialisations include the development of microfluidic devices for high-throughput biological experimentation, ultra-sensitive optical detection techniques and point-of-care diagnostics. A key focus of recent research efforts has been the development of droplet-based microfluidic systems for high-throughput biology and the introduction of stroboscopic imaging flow cytometry for high resolution imaging of biological cells at throughputs approaching half a million cells per second.
Prof. Vera Gorbunova will give her talk Mechanisms of Longevity, from Naked Mole Rats to Bowhead Whales on September 23, 2021.
Her research is focused on understanding the mechanisms of longevity and genome stability and on the studies of exceptionally long-lived mammals. Prof. Gorbunova pioneered comparative biology approach to study aging and identified rules that control the evolution of tumor suppressor mechanisms depending on the species lifespan and body mass. Prof. Gorbunova also investigates the role of Sirtuin proteins in maintaining genome stability. More recently the focus of her research has been on the longest-lived rodent species the naked mole rats and the blind mole rat. Prof. Gorbunova identified high molecular weight hyaluronan as the key mediator of cancer-resistance in the naked mole rat.
Zdeněk Hostomský - Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic
Dr. Zdeněk Hostomský will give his talk PARP Inhibition - from Idea to Registration, a Personal Perspective on October 14, 2021.
"The lecture summarizes my experience with the development of an inhibitor that we eventually managed to bring to market in the USA as an oncological drug.And it emphasizes how often this is difficult to predict in pharmaceutical research."
Prof. Michal Hocek will give his talk Base-modified nucleosides, nucleotides and nucleic acids for medicinal chemistry and chemical biology on October 21, 2021.
Prof. Hocek specializes in chemistry and biology of nucleosides, nucleotides and nucleic acids. In the field of medicinal chemistry, he develops new nucleosides and nucleotides with cytostatic and antiviral activity and studies their mechanism of action.In bioorganic chemistry, he develops syntheses of new labeled and modified nucleotides and investigates enzymatic methods for the synthesis of modified nucleic acids and their applications in diagnostics and chemical biology.
Prof. Marek Mlodzik will give his talk Wnt/Frizzled Planar Cell Polarity signaling in development and disease on November 18, 2021 as a part of Mendel Lectures.
In the past 20 years his work focused on the molecular mechanisms of Wnt/PCP (Planar Cell Polarity)-signaling and how this regulates cell polarity and cell migration in development and disease. Most recently the research focus also addresses the role of ciliary proteins in non-ciliated contexts, and the role of the ciliary transport complex in the cytoplasm and in nuclear translocation of b-catenin. His research studies also the mechanisms of how the Wnt and Notch signaling pathways interact in normal organogenesis and patterning and disease contexts, including cancer, neural tube closure defects, and ciliopathies.
