<p><strong>One of the <a href="https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/actions/postdoctoral-fellowships"><strong>Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-FP)</strong></a> schemes that supports the training of early career scientists with an emphasis on comprehensive professional and career development helped <a href="https://www.ceitec.eu/william-shakespeare-morton-ph-d/u94475"><strong>William S. Morton</strong></a> from <a href="https://vacha.ceitec.cz"><strong>Robert Vácha’s research group</strong></a> to fund his research at <a href="https://lcms.labrulez.com/companies/36"><strong>CEITEC</strong></a> Masaryk University. The new call for MSCA-FP applications opens on April 10, 2024, so we wanted to learn first-hand from both William and Robert about pros and cons of this funding and find out more about this young American scientist’s motivations to do science in Brno, as William travelled across half of Europe from his last posting, and money did not play a major role.</strong></p>
<h5><strong>William, when we met you told me you were doing “fake biology” and “fake physics”. Can you explain what you mean by “fake”?</strong></h5>
<p>If we wanted to see what happens when we drop a plate of spaghetti on the floor, we could use pasta. Instead, we could use pieces of string that are the same size, or maybe cut up elastic bands. These wouldn’t be the same as using pasta, but it would be an approximation. We could then control the conditions by tuning the exact length or material. My job is similar. Scientists at CEITEC perform a lot of cutting-edge research on proteins, and I make representations to isolate a specific property. Then we figure out if theories about our fake proteins are comparable to the real thing.</p>
<h5><strong>How did your journey to Brno and CEITEC begin?</strong></h5>
<p>I came here for an internship in 2022, during peak COVID times. My supervisor had worked with Robert when they were both at Cambridge and thought he would be the expert to help me with some computer simulations. Later, Robert mentioned the possibility of me coming to CEITEC for a postdoc. I was halfway through writing up my thesis when we called for the interview. We talked for a while and eventually I asked when he would like me to start this project. We were chatting on Thursday, and he said, ‘Monday would be great’. I thought he was kidding; he wasn&#39;t.</p>
<p> <strong>Robert Vácha:</strong> Recommendations within the scientific community are extremely important. I always try to find new members of my group through someone I can rely on to recommend a good candidate. At that time, William was working with Stefano Angioletti-Uberti, who was doing simulations with polymers and nanoparticles. William had become interested in nanoparticles in contact with membranes and we have a lot of experience with that. Stefano put us in touch so that William could learn how to simulate such systems and so he came to us for an internship. A year later, we were starting a project in which the experiments were already done but the simulations with a model at the level William was working on were missing. Therefore, he was an ideal candidate and it was also an opportunity for him to get involved in an already running project. But we needed to get the simulations done as soon as possible, so I was in a hurry for his arrival.</p>
<h5><strong>What was the one thing that made you decide to come to Brno?</strong></h5>
<p>There were multiple aspects: The first one was being able to work continuously with Robert and his group, a collection of fantastic scientists. I already knew that I liked the culture and environment around Brno, everything here is very accessible, and there’s plenty of outdoor activities. The last aspect was that moving here terrified me. To put myself in the middle of a whole bunch of real biologists who are all speaking Czech? But eventually I thought, ‘cool, I think I can do this’.</p>
<h5><strong>At what point did the MSCA funding come into play?</strong></h5>
<p>It will likely come in May, I&#39;ve not signed the contract yet, the European Union still has it. But to be precise, my research will be funded by European Research Agency (ERA) as part of the Horizon Wider Area Talents program. The MSCA-PF reviewers give your grant a score from 0–100. If your score is above the cutoff for the category you’ve applied to, you earn the MSCA. This year for life sciences, the cutoff was 94.4%. If you receive above 90% on an application for the Czech Republic (the exact value varies in each area), then your grant will be funded by the ERA as part of the Horizon Wider Area Talents program. And that was my case.</p>
<h5><strong>How did you learn about the MSCA grant?</strong></h5>
<p>As soon as Robert hired me, he mentioned this. He had so many ideas of things that I could do. He pushes his group to do more for ourselves, and for CEITEC – like developing and teaching courses. It’s a great quality in a supervisor because it&#39;s hard to remember to care about all of those things at the same time, so it’s good to be reminded.</p>
<p><strong>Robert Vácha:</strong> There were several reasons why I recommended the MSCA-FP grant to William. First, the MSCA-FP grant is a &quot;brand&quot;, so in addition to getting funding for his own research, the grant is a visible item on any scientist&#39;s CV, and second, it gives a young scientist a taste of what grant writing is like (and writing a first grant is always the most difficult). William and I talked about the time it would cost him, but I knew it would be time well invested because I was convinced that William had a very good chance of getting the funding. In addition to his talent and knowledge, I knew he would be a great fit for the group on a personal level. That&#39;s why I&#39;m thrilled that he has received the grant and will be able to work with us here. After all, my goal is not only to have a group of great scientists, but to make a great team that will be a pleasure to work with.</p>
<h5><strong>Was it difficult to administer the application?</strong></h5>
<p>Actually, I wasn&#39;t going to apply for the grant, originally. I didn&#39;t have enough time because I started this position while finishing my PhD. I also didn&#39;t know if I would still want to be here after a year. Then a week before the deadline, I was applying for a different grant, and thought I was already writing one anyways – so I wrote it up quickly and e-mailed the grant office. Thankfully the grant office wasn’t too mad at me, but I know it put them under extra pressure. But the whole team there is amazing, and I’m still thanking them for helping me out.</p>
<h5><strong>What will be covered by the funding besides your relocation?</strong></h5>
<p>It covers my salary, which is probably the most important part for researchers considering this grant. But the great thing is you get a pool of resource money for research. With computer simulations, it can be easy to build something bespoke: custom. When it comes time to purchase something, say a peptide, that could mean that it is expensive. Having your own resources allows you to make these purchases, without the fear that your experiment may take away funds from someone else&#39;s.</p>
<p>Along the way, we can also help support master students who work for us by giving them some stipend. It&#39;s something that we can do to help the community at CEITEC – bring in master students to start learning these skills.</p>
<h5><strong>What are the requirements you must fulfill for the funding?</strong></h5>
<p>To meet the requirements, I must make good on everything I promised in my application. Writing the grant feels like a fever dream, so I had to look up what I wrote once I got the news. Apparently, I promised to publish three papers but also share my research at various levels throughout the scientific and local community. Reaching out to the local community is much harder but so much more worth it, and CEITEC offers a lot of opportunities for that. I think that is going to be the goal that I care about the most. I&#39;m really excited about the Sip of Science events in TED-talk style here at CEITEC MUNI. Me and my other colleagues were already talking about how to put our research into simple terms because that is the key to a good scientific speaker. And that, I think, is often unfortunately the last thing on anyone&#39;s priority list.</p>
<p>I also leaned into one of the stated goals for the horizon project, which is translation to industry. Opening this type of communication can be difficult in practice but is also part of my engineering background, so it doesn’t feel uncomfortable. I’m excited to start a project from scratch with the intention of making it translatable to an industrial field. Usually that’s an afterthought. I think this helped to set my application apart from the others.</p>
<h5><strong>Is being “different” an advantage for getting a grant?</strong></h5>
<p>In every example I saw, the focus is always on the scientific part, which intuitively makes sense. But there are other questions to consider: Is the research impacted by any gender issues? Do underrepresented populations have any place in your research? These aspects tend to get marginalized. I tried to produce arguments for how my research could impact and recognize different people. This is the hardest part to write because you want to be genuine but not pandering. I sent this part to most of my friends, academics or not, just to get as much feedback as possible. Getting their feedback won’t hurt, and even if there’s nothing you can change, you can at least be aware.</p>


Scientists should ask themself what impact science has on different people, says applicant for prestigious MSCA-FP funding

Luděk Sehnal: I see the foreign experience as essential. In Australia, I found the scientific topic of a lifetime.

<p><strong>A groundbreaking study from the SPRINT project, funded by the European Union&#39;s Horizon program, has unveiled a concerning reality: pesticide residues are pervasive in both agricultural environments and residential settings, raising concerns for environmental and human health. These findings, which have significant implications for European Union decision-makers, emphasise the urgent need for comprehensive regulatory measures to address the potentially far-reaching impacts of the co-occurrence of pesticides.</strong></p>
<p>For decades, pesticides have been employed globally to bolster agricultural productivity, yet the cumulative effects of their residues have been largely overlooked. The scientific community are increasingly unveiling an alarming trend: pesticide residues, often assessed for risk on a substance-by-substance basis, are in fact extensively mingling in ecosystems. This issue is not confined to agricultural fields and waterbodies but also in the very homes of farmworkers and of their neighbours.</p>
<p>The SPRINT project undertook a <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0259748"><strong>field sampling campaign</strong></a> in 10 European countries that identified pesticide residues at all study sites . The first <a href="(https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0160412023005536?via%3Dihub)"><strong>peer-reviewed paper</strong></a> presenting the sampling results has recently been published. This unique dataset has raised concerns about the consequences of such a wide distribution of pesticide residues.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Recetox_SPRINT_Rezidua_15ce9451b5/Recetox-SPRINT-Rezidua.jpg" alt="Recetox: New Research Reveals Pesticide Mixtures Widespread in Environment, Urging Enhanced Regulatory Measures."/></p>
<p>The SPRINT team analysed 200+ pesticide residues in over 600 environmental samples from both organic and conventional farms. The sampled matrices included soil, water, sediments, crops, outdoor air, and indoor dust. Remarkably, the study reveals that 86% of the tested samples contained pesticide residues and 76% mixtures of pesticides. The total number of different pesticides detected in the different matrices ranged from 76 in outdoor air, 78 in crops, 99 in sediments, 100 in soil to 197 in indoor dust. Most of these pesticides are on the approved EU list, but recently and long banned residues represent a significant part of the pesticide mixtures. Glyphosate residues are the most frequently detected with high concentrations over all environmental samples studied.</p>
<p>The indoor dust findings are particularly striking, as this might have possible implications on the health of individuals living in farmhouses and rural areas. Dust in one house contained residues from 121 different pesticides. Although the study did not assess the specific level of exposure experienced by the inhabitants, it is concerning that over two-thirds of the residues identified in the dust are classified according to the <em>Pesticide Properties Database</em> (<em>PPDB</em>)*, as being “highly hazardous” to mammals and are linked to adverse human health effects. Based on the results, the study proposed a new prioritization hazard-based indicator of pesticides for ecosystem and human health assessments that may be applied in the achievement of the pesticide reduction goal of the Farm to Fork Strategy.</p>
<p>Professor Violette Geissen from Wageningen University &amp; Research, SPRINT project coordinator, underscoring the far-reaching significance of these findings, said <em>&quot;Our research highlights that the issue of pesticide mixtures transcends the agricultural field areas; it reaches the very households of those working on farms and their neighbouring communities. The results show that not only are mixtures of pesticide residues rather common in both agricultural and residential settings, but also that they can be highly complex, and variable in these settings. We need a more nuanced understanding of the impact of chemical mixtures in the field and related exposure-response data to better understand the ecosystem and human health risks. We urgently require integrated risk assessments that mirror the real-world complexity of these widespread pesticide mixtures.&quot;</em></p>
<p>The SPRINT project&#39;s next phase will delve into assessing ecosystem and human health risks posed by the identified pesticide mixtures. Equipped with the comprehensive data, the project aims to develop a novel indicator tailored for regulatory purposes, thus providing EU decision-makers with information to support tools to tackle the mounting challenges posed by pesticide mixtures.</p>
<p><em>About the SPRINT Project:</em> The SPRINT project, funded by the European Union&#39;s Horizon program, stands at the forefront of scientific inquiry into the impacts of pesticide mixtures on agriculture and human health. With a multidisciplinary approach and unprecedented data collection efforts, the project aims to develop a Global Health Risk Assessment Toolbox to assess the impacts of pesticides on environmental and human health and to propose several transition pathways to reduce the use and risk of pesticides.</p>
<p>*The Pesticide Properties Database (PPDB) is a comprehensive relational database of over 1800 pesticides and their metabolites. It has principally been developed to support risk assessments. Data held includes registration information, physical chemical properties, toxicological endpoints, human health data and commercial information.</p>


New Research Reveals Pesticide Mixtures Widespread in Environment, Urging Enhanced Regulatory Measures

<p><strong>The international conference on environment and health in Central Europe, organized on the occasion of the Czech Presidency of the Visegrad Four (V4), took place on Monday, 11 March 2024, at the library of the Masaryk University campus in Brno, Czech Republic. Organised jointly by the Ministry of the Environment and the Ministry of Health in cooperation with the RECETOX Centre of Masaryk University, the conference brought scientists and experts from nine Central European countries (extended V4+ format) to Brno, together with representatives of the best European research institutes dedicated to research on environmental exposures and public health, as well as high level representatives of the World Health Organisation and director of the European Environment Agency.</strong></p>
<p>More than 100 participants agreed that to protect people&#39;s health in the Central European region from the negative consequences of chemical exposures, we need to strengthen cooperation between the environment and health sectors, share available data and use it in decision-making processes. However, it must also be acknowledged that there is a lack of data in this region, which has many historical and cultural specificities, and the problems of Central Europe are not visible at the European level.</p>
<p>It is therefore necessary to strengthen cooperation among Central European countries and to formulate common regional priorities and strategies. Further, It is possible to use ongoing projects and partnerships to promote these priorities at European level, but also to seek financial resources at national and international level. The countries agreed on the need for long-term investment in research infrastructures for long-term environmental and population studies, laboratory capacities and database systems.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/RECETOX_Lukas_Ryznar_Konference_V4_o_zivotnim_prostredi_a_zdravi_ve_stredni_Evrope_1_2a1a05d189.jpg" alt="RECETOX/Lukáš Rýznar: Conference on Environment and Health in Central Europe."/></p>
<p>The need to restore trust in science, which is declining with the development of new communication channels and social networks, was also strongly voiced. There is a need to educate youth and children and to make them literate in environmental and lifestyle issues and their impact on human health and the functioning of society, but especially in critical thinking and the ability to sort information.</p>
<p>In order to do this, new multidisciplinary educational modules need to be developed not only for children but also for teachers in primary and secondary schools. However, there are also gaps in university education, because in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, there is virtually no training of experts in epidemiology and environmental health, areas that are essential for the development of a comprehensive concept of public health, but also for the development of precision medicine.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/RECETOX_Lukas_Ryznar_Konference_V4_o_zivotnim_prostredi_a_zdravi_ve_stredni_Evrope_2_a91c7f00b9.jpg" alt="RECETOX/Lukáš Rýznar: Conference on Environment and Health in Central Europe."/></p>
<p>In order to develop a personalised approach to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of chronic conditions, a better understanding of the relationships between genetic predispositions, environmental and social stressors and individual behaviour is needed. Collaborative efforts are also needed in the region to develop this education. There is an opportunity to jointly develop not only bachelor&#39;s or master&#39;s degree programmes, but also training modules for use in the lifelong learning of professionals in public health, occupational medicine and clinical medicine.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/RECETOX_Lukas_Ryznar_Konference_V4_o_zivotnim_prostredi_a_zdravi_ve_stredni_Evrope_3_efc95ab291.jpg" alt="RECETOX/Lukáš Rýznar: Conference on Environment and Health in Central Europe."/></p>
<p>Much attention was paid to participatory programmes and public involvement in research activities that can be used not only to obtain data on population health and behaviour, but also to educate children and adults. The use of new smart technologies, such as personal sensors and samplers, is useful for this purpose.</p>
<p>The Czech Republic, for example has one of the oldest biomonitoring programmes in Europe operated by the National Institute of Public Health in Prague, and in Brno itself, whose Living Laboratory has been running not only the CELSPAC population studies for many years, but also participatory programmes for school children and adults, were cited as examples of good practice at these meetings.</p>
<p>The RECETOX Centre at Masaryk University, which has been coordinating for several years the building of the EIRENE global infrastructure for research on the effects of environmental exposures on human health, has also contributed to this.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/RECETOX_Lukas_Ryznar_Konference_V4_o_zivotnim_prostredi_a_zdravi_ve_stredni_Evrope_5_74d85940a8.jpg" alt="RECETOX/Lukáš Rýznar: Conference on Environment and Health in Central Europe."/></p>
<p>The conclusions of the conference were presented yesterday at a follow-up meeting of Central European Environment Ministers, where the priorities of the individual countries were further discussed. One of the topics discussed at both conferences was the possibility of promoting a European research mission on the healthy physical and mental development of children and young people in the face of complex environmental, socio-economic and political crises.</p>
<p>This conference represents an important step towards strengthening international cooperation and dialogue between different sectors to ensure a safe and healthy environment for the citizens of Central Europe.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/RECETOX_Lukas_Ryznar_Konference_V4_o_zivotnim_prostredi_a_zdravi_ve_stredni_Evrope_6_08f3581092.jpg" alt="RECETOX/Lukáš Rýznar: Conference on Environment and Health in Central Europe."/></p>


V4+ Conference on Environment and Health in Central Europe

<p><strong>Beer and wine. That&#39;s why Associate Professor Branislav Vrana decided to study food chemistry at the university. Initially, he wanted to become a professional brewer or winemaker, but his plans took a completely different direction, and he became an environmental chemist. For his first trip abroad, Vrana had to wait because of the political situation, but then he traveled and lived with his family in Germany and the UK. Why did he decide to travel abroad? And when did he get the idea to go back? Read the interview with Branislav Vrana - scientist, adventurer, and enthusiastic historian.</strong></p>
<h5><strong>Associate Professor Vrana, what fascinated you so much about science that you decided to pursue a career as an environmental scientist?</strong></h5>
<p>I&#39;ve been interested in chemistry since elementary school, so I decided to study it. In 1989, I started at the Faculty of Chemical Technology at the Slovak Technical University in Bratislava. My thesis supervisor, physical chemist Professor Štefan Baláž, now based in the USA at the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, led me to research the environment and health. Professor Balazs pioneered the study of quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR) between the structure of chemicals and their biological effects. After 1989, it became clear that many environmental burdens in Czechoslovakia also negatively affected human health. Professor Balazs asked me to help him investigate the relationship between the structure and microbial degradability of one group of pollutants, the so-called polychlorinated biphenyls. That was the beginning of my journey as an environmental scientist. And, frankly, I never imagined this would be my path.</p>
<h5><strong>What was your field of study in college</strong>?</h5>
<p>I studied food chemistry, which was an interdisciplinary study called Biochemical Technology. We took some courses at the Faculty of Chemical Technology of The Slovak University Of Technology and others at the Faculty of Science of Comenius University. And among the subjects, I studied at the Faculty of Technology were, for example, brewing and wine production technologies. If I hadn&#39;t become a scientist, I would have stayed working in the food industry. After graduation, I studied fermentation technology and would have gone into food additive manufacturing in the brewing or winemaking industry. I still have a connection to winemaking - we have a small vineyard in the family and make our wines, which is why I previously considered a career as a professional winemaker. Incidentally, I&#39;m still drawing on my university studies to work in the family vineyard and make wine. Laugh.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/RECETOX_CC_BY_Branislav_Vrana_Fotografie_ze_zivota_v_Portsmouth_4_72f3d7df46/RECETOX-CC-BY-Branislav-Vrana-Fotografie-ze-zivota-v-Portsmouth-4.jpg" alt="RECETOX, CC-BY, Branislav Vrana: a picture from life in Portsmouth."/></p>
<h5><strong>But beer and wine production didn&#39;t tempt you, and you started your doctoral studies. What was your dissertation topic?</strong></h5>
<p>My supervisor&#39;s enthusiasm for environmental research guided me away from classical biotechnology. I went on to study the factors that influence PCBs&#39; microbial degradability. I also pursued this topic while writing my Ph.D. thesis at the Faculty of Chemical Technology and Engineering, The Slovak University of Technology, in Bratislava. Polychlorinated biphenyls are an exciting group of 209 structurally similar substances. They differ in properties, environmental fate, toxicity, and biodegradability due to the number and location of chlorine atoms on the biphenyl skeleton. They are interesting as a model object of research. In the 1990s, removing them biotechnologically from contaminated sites, such as the former factory, for their production in Strážské in eastern Slovakia was possible. Unfortunately, their resistance to biodegradation (persistence) is enormous, and they are still present at many sites decades after their production was prohibited.</p>
<h5><strong>You&#39;ve lived for several years abroad. And from your story, it sounds like a great adventure! How did it all start?</strong></h5>
<p>After finishing my university studies, I wanted to continue in science, but I discovered that it would not be difficult in Slovakia. It was the 1990s, a period of economic depression and a politically complicated time. At the end of my Ph.D. studies, Professor Balazs was offered a professorship at the University of Minnesota, and I completed my dissertation under his supervision remotely. After Professor Balazs went abroad, his working group also broke up, and its members ended up abroad. I was curious about how science is done in other countries and wanted to gain new knowledge and experience. I had desired to go overseas during my engineering studies, but in the 1990s, it was challenging to do so. Thanks to my supervisor&#39;s international contacts, I attended several international conferences during my doctoral studies. The first was a trip to Switzerland, and it was great! First time abroad! We went as a group, professor and Ph.D. students, all squeezed together in one Felicia. Laugh. Then I was able, as part of a NATO-supported project, to go to Canada for a two-month internship at the Canadian Centre for Inland Waters near Toronto. It was a very intense experience. But I was not such an adventurer to stay there. I also felt a bit of a language handicap. But it doesn&#39;t matter; my life took me to Leipzig, Germany.</p>
<h5><strong>And why Leipzig?</strong></h5>
<p>My supervisor collaborated with Professor Schürman at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ). And I was lucky because they were looking for a postdoc on the fate of toxic substances in the environment. At that time, there was a lot of emphasis on POPs (Persistent Organic Pollutants), and I had already had experience with similar research in Slovakia.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/RECETOX_CC_BY_Branislav_Vrana_Fotografie_ze_zivota_v_Portsmouth_e4a16ccf8a/RECETOX-CC-BY-Branislav-Vrana-Fotografie-ze-zivota-v-Portsmouth.jpg" alt="RECETOX, CC-BY, Branislav Vrana: a picture from life in Portsmouth."/></p>
<h5><strong>When did you go to Leipzig? And was it an easy decision?</strong></h5>
<p>I left in 1998. I was happy to go from Slovakia because the situation in the country didn&#39;t look good. Fortunately, the political regime changed, the much-needed reforms came, and everything took a better direction, but by that time, I was already in Leipzig. If I had stayed in Slovakia a little longer, I might never have left.</p>
<h5><strong>How was your life in Leipzig?</strong></h5>
<p>I went to Leipzig with my wife, who was then pregnant with our first son. Both my sons were born in Germany, where we lived together for 4.5 years. At the Centre, they planned to keep my position for three years, then the research extended, and I stayed another year and a half. We were happy in Leipzig. The city was flourishing, and the Helmholtz Center was a new center for applied environmental research. I still work with many colleagues from Leipzig today, and we have remained close friends.</p>
<h5><strong>Moving from Czechoslovakia to Germany wasn&#39;t easy. Did you like the city itself?</strong></h5>
<p>Leipzig is an exciting city that systematically repaired its monuments after the regime change in 1989. It also invested in architecture, transport, science, and research. And the attractiveness of the city, in general, has grown enormously. The city center is not very big, in some ways it reminds me of Brno, people live near large parks and nature. Leipzig was, and therefore still is, a great city.</p>
<h5><strong>And what exactly did you do at the Helmholtz Center?</strong></h5>
<p>The issues I worked on were innovative methods for monitoring environmental pollutants. And we were developing a new passive sampling technique as an effective monitoring method that would be low-cost and simultaneously monitor pollutants. We worked on projects related to surface and groundwater pollution. Leipzig and the surrounding area have been a center of the chemical industry for more than 100 years, producing a wide range of chemicals and phytochemicals. The local factories were bombed during the war, and chemicals got into the surrounding area and groundwater. Plus, in the pre-1989 era, nobody cared about the environmental safety of chemicals. After all the events in and around Leipzig, industrial sources and mining polluted the surface and groundwater. For example, I also investigated how to remove chemicals from groundwater. We researched the extent of surface water pollution in the vicinity of Eisleben in the Mansfeld region, where, coincidentally, the great church reformer Martin Luther was born and died. The town had been a mining town since the Middle Ages, surrounded by copper mines (e.g., Luther&#39;s father was also a miner). The processing of the copper slate produced various organic and inorganic pollutants in large quantities, which were washed as fine sludge into the rivers and deposited at the bottom of the water reservoirs. There, one can find, figuratively, the entire periodic table of chemical elements and a wide variety of their compounds.</p>
<h5><strong>And what happened after Germany?</strong></h5>
<p>I had the opportunity to stay in Leipzig, but I was still young enough and wanted to try something else. Luckily, I was offered a job at the University of Portsmouth in South England. Colleagues were submitting a new European project on a research topic close to my heart. I was in contact with them, and after the project was approved, the project coordinators suggested I apply for a researcher position. It worked out, and I was offered the job in the three-year project.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/RECETOX_CC_BY_Branislav_Vrana_Fotografie_ze_zivota_v_Portsmouth_3_5d9cbb058a/RECETOX-CC-BY-Branislav-Vrana-Fotografie-ze-zivota-v-Portsmouth-3.jpg" alt="RECETOX, CC-BY, Branislav Vrana: a picture from life in Portsmouth."/></p>
<h5><strong>How did you manage to move again with two young children?</strong></h5>
<p>Moving was a big adventure. When I applied for the position, I realized that moving could be challenging. Laugh. First, I moved my wife and two young children back to Slovakia and went alone to England to find housing for all of us. We had all our stuff in Germany all the time because we needed to figure out where to move it. I found a removal company on the internet that suited our needs, and they moved all our possessions from Leipzig to a depot near Berlin, where they stayed for a while before I knew where we would live. Within two weeks, I found a place to live in Portsmouth. We had a typical small British house just fifteen minutes by bike from the beach. I used to cross the harbor by boat to work every day. It would have been more than 30 km driving around the whole port. On the boat, it was only two kilometers.</p>
<h5><strong>It sounds like a story out of a movie.</strong></h5>
<p>And it was true. Laugh. England was great. My youngest son lived through his early childhood in Portsmouth and then missed England for a long time.</p>
<h5><strong>And what about moving on to England?</strong></h5>
<p>I settled in, planted a flower bed, and waited for my wife and sons. Laugh. But when they arrived in England, the furniture still wasn&#39;t there. The shipping company came a month later. And so we were living in a camp, only under a roof. Laugh. And I still remember the great joy of our children when they saw their toys after more than two months. It wasn&#39;t always easy with our travels, and I admire my staying with me.</p>
<h5><strong>Where did you like it better - Leipzig or Portsmouth?</strong></h5>
<p>It&#39;s hard to compare. Each country has its pros and cons; everywhere, there is something to admire and learn something new. The Germans are less friendly at first, the English more jovial. With Leipzig, located in the east of Germany, we share a similar post-war history and life experience, so my colleagues from Leipzig were a little closer to me than those from Portsmouth. But I have good friends in Germany and England. And I&#39;m very fond of history, especially medieval history. We used to go on train trips around the south of England and explore the backwaters of history.</p>
<h5><strong>What did you work on in England?</strong></h5>
<p>The work was exciting. With eight partners from all over Europe, we developed a sampler that we managed to patent. In England, we focused on sampling regulated organic pollutants, such as persistent pesticides on the surface and seawater. And we sampled right in the Royal Navy harbor in Portsmouth, where a British aircraft carrier was docked at the time; I think it was HMS Invincible. The port is very contaminated; big ships are being repaired there, and it&#39;s a busy transport hub. In addition, during the Second World War, the city of Portsmouth and its harbor were frequently bombed by the Luftwaffe, so oil was repeatedly spilled into the sea, and unexploded ordnance was still found in the port.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/RECETOX_CC_BY_Branislav_Vrana_Fotografie_ze_zivota_v_Portsmouth_5_8afbeab10f/RECETOX-CC-BY-Branislav-Vrana-Fotografie-ze-zivota-v-Portsmouth-5.jpg" alt="RECETOX, CC-BY, Branislav Vrana: a picture from life in Portsmouth."/></p>
<h5><strong>And did you want to stay in England or move on?</strong></h5>
<p>As much as my family liked England, we missed central Europe and our family. Plus, my wife wanted to start work after maternity leave, and with young children in a foreign country where you don&#39;t have a background, it&#39;s hard to have both parents working. Moreover, Slovakia has been in the European Union since 2004, and this promises a brighter tomorrow. In 2006 we decided to return to Slovakia.</p>
<h5><strong>Where did you put down roots after returning to your homeland?</strong></h5>
<p>After I arrived, I looked for various jobs in the industry, but I still wanted to work on water and pollution issues. Eventually, I ended up at the Water Research Institute in Bratislava in the National Reference Laboratory for Water. I worked in an accredited laboratory, monitoring surface and groundwater quality throughout Slovakia and developing methods for determining regulated pollutants. I also tried to get my research projects, which were quite successful. For example, we cooperated with Austria, investigating the quality of water in the Danube. We helped reconstruct Bosnia and Herzegovina after the war and trained our colleagues there to have sufficient expertise in implementing European water legislation. It was exciting to work. But after a while, the routine grew, and I started to miss the space for my research. I worked in Slovakia until 2014, and then we moved to Brno.</p>
<h5><strong>So RECETOX?</strong></h5>
<p>Yes, RECETOX. At an international conference in Prague in 2009, we met Professor Jana Klánová, who was looking for scientists with expertise in new research areas. It was perfect timing. I missed science, the intense contact with the scientific world, and the university environment. Word got around, and I have been commuting to Brno every week since 2010 to teach and engage in research activities at RECETOX. I enjoyed working with the students on their final theses. I also threw myself into research and publishing activities, and gradually I was in Brno more and more until we moved to the south of Moravia entirely with my family. And we are very happy here.</p>
<h5><strong>And what is the current topic of your scientific work?</strong></h5>
<p>My team and I work on several thematic areas. One priority is characterizing the fate and risks of pollutants in the aquatic environment. We are developing methods to assess how much aquatic organisms are exposed to trace organic contaminants in surface water, wastewater and sediment. Although it appears that humans do not come into direct contact with pollutants from rivers, this is a misconception. For example, fish living in water take up contaminants, and we eat them in fish flesh.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/RECETOX_CC_BY_Branislav_Vrana_Fotografie_ze_zivota_v_Portsmouth_2_638bcb81d7/RECETOX-CC-BY-Branislav-Vrana-Fotografie-ze-zivota-v-Portsmouth-2.jpg" alt="RECETOX, CC-BY, Branislav Vrana: a picture from life in Portsmouth."/></p>
<h5><strong>Why did you choose to research contaminants in water?</strong></h5>
<p>I have always had a relationship with nature and love the sea. I would have been interested in air research as well, but the topic of water pollution came to me so gradually, and I took it on as my own.</p>
<h5><strong>Associate Professor Vrana, you&#39;ve traveled extensively. In retrospect, how do you see your travel and scientific adventures?</strong></h5>
<p>In history, it was pretty standard that every apprentice, to become more experienced in their craft and become a master, had to compulsorily go abroad for a few years to gain new knowledge. And in science, it is no different. Experiencing research abroad and experiencing other cultures is incredibly rewarding, and I recommend it to everyone. It&#39;s never too late!</p>
<h5><strong>Where is it going next?</strong></h5>
<p>Laugh. Nowhere! I hope it&#39;s Brno, and RECETOX is already my destination.</p>


Environmental chemist Branislav Vrana: To the first conference, we drove in an old Skoda Felicia

<p><strong>&quot;The first science communicators for me were already high school teachers,” says researcher and laureate of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic award, Barbora Rudzanová.</strong></p>
<blockquote>
<p><strong>Barbora Rudzanová is a doctoral student in the field of Environment and Health, a researcher at the <a href="https://lcms.labrulez.com/companies/19"><strong>RECETOX</strong></a> center for toxic substances research, and recently also the holder of the Jiřina Michlová Prize from the Learned Society of the Czech Republic for the year 2024. In the interview, she explains why she is dedicated to the impact of chemical substances on human health, what makes her work at RECETOX unique, and what she believes the popularization of science brings.</strong></p>
</blockquote>
<h5><strong>Your research topic is “The Impact of Chemical Exposure on the Human Immune System”. Why this particular topic?</strong></h5>
<p>My interest in it appeared already during my bachelor’s studies, when I was studying immunity and its mechanisms. The immune system fascinates me, it’s an endless interplay of all possible cells and molecules, there’s always something to discover. After my bachelor’s degree, I started to be more interested in the influences and factors that are in the environment around us and at the same time affect our health, and into which we also count chemical substances. When I had the opportunity here at RECETOX to study their impact on our immune system, I went for it.</p>
<h5><strong>Did a personal role model play a role in this choice of yours? Were you inspired by someone or something?</strong></h5>
<p>During the bachelor’s studies, where I studied biochemistry, I found a subject taught here at RECETOX out of my own interest. It was devoted to the basics of general ecotoxicology and was taught by Professor Bláha. I was attracted by the style in which it was lectured and its content. That was probably the moment when the topic drew me in and I started to think more about what and how influences us around.</p>
<h5><strong>Very recently, you were awarded for a study in which you and a team of other scientists dealt with a specific group of substances, namely perfluorinated compounds. Do you focus only on this group or is your research scope wider?</strong></h5>
<p>I am indeed primarily dealing with these substances, which are also called PFAS or eternal chemicals. When studying the mechanism of action, which I am dealing with, it is good to focus on one specific substance or group of substances, because each of them has a slightly different mechanism. In addition to that, we are now also working on a new approach to evaluating mixtures of substances. In everyday life, we are not exposed to just one chemical, but always a combination. The effects on human health can then accumulate. Describing the issue of mixtures is still a bit of a nut to crack for us scientists, so we are now trying to create a model that could help with predicting their effects.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/RECETOX_Prvni_komunikatori_vedy_pro_me_byli_uz_ucitele_na_stredni_rika_vyzkumnice_a_laureatka_ceny_Ucene_spolecnosti_Barbora_Rudzanova_ef8bc50b7e.jpg" alt="RECETOX: &quot;The first science communicators for me were already high school teachers,” says researcher and laureate of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic award, Barbora Rudzanová"/></p>
<h5><strong>What role do you think RECETOX plays in the quality of scientific outputs you are now able to create?</strong></h5>
<p>Without RECETOX, the publication simply would not have been created. It is the only academic workplace in the Czech Republic where the impact of chemical substances on human health and their mechanism is studied. In addition, I used the population study CELSPAC for my work, i.e. a group of people who voluntarily agree to provide their data for scientific purposes. As far as the Czech Republic is concerned, CELSPAC is also a bit of a rarity, because these are currently participants in the order of hundreds, which is quite a high number considering how big the Czech Republic is.</p>
<h5><strong>Would you recommend RECETOX to future students? And if so, why?</strong></h5>
<p>Yes, I really like RECETOX. It seems to me that we are still a small enough workplace for there to be a rather family atmosphere. I feel good here not only because of the work that I enjoy, but also because people here are nice to each other. I would definitely recommend anyone who is considering studying or researching in the field to apply to RECETOX or come and see us, for example, on Open Doors Day.</p>
<h5><strong>Let’s go back briefly to your success and the winning study. Why do you think it was your work that was awarded such a prestigious prize?</strong></h5>
<p>After finding out that the prize is awarded to a maximum of two students across disciplines from the whole Czech Republic, I honestly didn’t believe in myself much. But when I thought about it after the announcement of the results, I think the evaluators were attracted to the work by the topic of PFAS substances, which is very current now. This is a huge group of chemicals that we encounter on a daily basis and which have been found to be non-degradable and negatively affect human health. These substances have been used since the 1940s and so it’s quite a big problem. The EU has also noticed it and has been actively addressing it for the last year and a comprehensive regulation of these substances is being planned. In the study, we managed to propose and describe the mechanism of their action on one type of immune cells. It could therefore help in the future in assessing the risks of PFAS and serve in setting subsequent regulations.</p>
<h5><strong>Part of the winning study was also a popularization text. You yourself like to devote yourself to popularization. Why do you think it’s important?</strong></h5>
<p>Personally, I think that even though there are excellent popularizers of science, there are still not enough of them at present. We scientists do science because we enjoy it, it makes sense to us to explore and get to the bottom of various things and then share the results among ourselves and discuss them. But it’s a very demanding job and ordinary people out there still don’t understand much what we actually do. It would be great to explain it to them more, so that they could at least a little penetrate into our fascinating world of science and also get excited by it. I find it a pity that popularization is not something automatic that a scientist would do. I understand that it’s not for everyone, but I think that everyone who is at least a little close to it and it makes sense to them should try to talk about science in an understandable way and get involved in the popularization and communication of science.</p>
<h5><strong>Do you think there is enough space for popularization in science?</strong></h5>
<p>Unfortunately, it is not a priority, publishing is. Communication, in my opinion, would deserve much more space and greater emphasis from the authorities. Therefore, I was pleased that a popularization text was part of the competition work for the Jiřina Michlová Prize, which highlighted the importance of popularization. I think that’s a good impulse for scientists. In general, however, it is rather the case that if a scientist wants to devote himself to popularization, he has to find time for it himself. It would be great, for example, if courses in science communication were part of doctoral study programs.</p>
<h5><strong>Do you have someone among popularizers who inspires you?</strong></h5>
<p>Anyone who speaks with passion and enthusiasm always catches my attention. The first science communicators for me were already high school teachers, on whom it was visible that they lived their topic, and that it made them happy. I admire everyone like that and it’s kind of a role model for me.</p>


"The first science communicators for me were already high school teachers,” says researcher and laureate of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic award, Barbora Rudzanová.

<p><strong>The city of Brno was the centre of structural biology and electron microscopy from 10 to 13 June 2024, CEITEC Masaryk University hosted the international meeting of the iNEXT-Discovery consortium together with a symposium reflecting the latest advances in cryo-electron microscopy. The podium was filled with leading scientists and experts and Brno once again confirmed its leading position in the field of microscopy.</strong></p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Brno_confirms_its_position_as_a_leader_in_electron_microscopy_with_the_i_NEXT_Discovery_conference_296dd0d694.jpg" alt="CEITEC: Brno confirms its position as a leader in electron microscopy with the iNEXT-Discovery conference."/></p>
<p>The iNEXT-Discovery consortium brings together 22 European top-notch laboratories from 14 European countries providing access to infrastructure for NMR spectroscopy, cryo-electron microscopy (cryo-EM) and X-ray diffraction for the purpose of using them to study the structures and functions of biomolecules. CEITEC Masaryk University is a member of the iNEXT-Discovery consortium and is contributing its NMR and cryo-EM laboratories and method development to building a community of users who use these technologies to study, for example, the function of viruses or cellular processes related to the transcription of genetic information. The Horizon-2020-funded iNEXT-Discovery project has already supported the research of over 1,000 primarily junior scientists in more than 400 different projects, the results of which have been reported in more than 200 publications, building on the success of iNEXT and continues to introduce and develop new technologies that make structural biology research more efficient and faster. Remote access and the development of new technologies such as artificial intelligence have accelerated the development of joint projects and specialised laboratories, the results of which show that every euro spent has been well invested. For example, the conference featured presentations on a new way to potentially block the infectivity of SARS-CoV-2 virus, the development of a new method to streamline structural studies using X-ray diffraction, a platform for automated sample preparation and control for cryo-EM, and current opportunities for NMR studies inside cells.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Brno_confirms_its_position_as_a_leader_in_electron_microscopy_with_the_i_NEXT_Discovery_conference_1_44acb674fa.jpeg" alt="CEITEC: Brno confirms its position as a leader in electron microscopy with the iNEXT-Discovery conference."/></p>
<p><em>&quot;The conference is dedicated to Prof. Vladimír Sklenář, one of the most renowned scientists in the field of structural biology, who has passed away this year and who contributed significantly to the development of structural biology in the Czech Republic, especially in the field of nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy,&quot;</em> says <a href="https://www.ceitec.eu/jiri-novacek-ph-d/u26736?page=publication"><strong>Jiří Nováček</strong></a>, Head of the cryo-EM core facility at CEITEC Masaryk University. <em>&quot;The conference is a great opportunity for a face-to-face meeting of the European community, which can share the latest findings in their respective fields and, thanks to this openness and collaboration, advance scientific knowledge together,&quot;</em> he adds.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Brno_confirms_its_position_as_a_leader_in_electron_microscopy_with_the_i_NEXT_Discovery_conference_2_136fc82ed5.jpeg" alt="CEITEC: Brno confirms its position as a leader in electron microscopy with the iNEXT-Discovery conference."/></p>
<p>The focus of the conference resonates with the city of Brno, which is known as a centre of electron microscopy. <em>&quot;We are very proud to welcome such a prestigious international conference to Brno. Electron microscopy is an area in which Brno excels, and we are convinced that iNEXT-Discovery has brought new impulses and opportunities for the further development of this field,&quot;</em> said Brno Mayor Markéta Vaňková, who took over the patronage of the event.</p>
<h5><a href="https://inext-symposium-cryo-em.ceitec.cz/?_gl=1*1qf4ad5*_ga*MTA1NDAxMDQ0Ny4xNzEzMzYxNzM4*_ga_L74QG6CYBE*MTcxODYxNTMzNC42LjAuMTcxODYxNTMzNC4wLjAuMA.."><strong>Conference website</strong></a></h5>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Brno_confirms_its_position_as_a_leader_in_electron_microscopy_with_the_i_NEXT_Discovery_conference_3_fe2fa99248.jpeg" alt="CEITEC: Brno confirms its position as a leader in electron microscopy with the iNEXT-Discovery conference."/><br/><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Brno_confirms_its_position_as_a_leader_in_electron_microscopy_with_the_i_NEXT_Discovery_conference_4_a5fb99e3ad.jpeg" alt="CEITEC: Brno confirms its position as a leader in electron microscopy with the iNEXT-Discovery conference."/><br/><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Brno_confirms_its_position_as_a_leader_in_electron_microscopy_with_the_i_NEXT_Discovery_conference_5_e287763199.jpeg" alt="CEITEC: Brno confirms its position as a leader in electron microscopy with the iNEXT-Discovery conference."/><br/><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Brno_confirms_its_position_as_a_leader_in_electron_microscopy_with_the_i_NEXT_Discovery_conference_6_54e74aba21.jpeg" alt="CEITEC: Brno confirms its position as a leader in electron microscopy with the iNEXT-Discovery conference."/></p>


Brno confirms its position as a leader in electron microscopy with the iNEXT-Discovery conference

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RECETOX (Research Centre for Toxic Compounds in the Environment) is an independent department of the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University in Brno, which has been established in 1983. RECETOX is focused on the research and education in cross-cutting area of Environment and Health. It addresses interactions among chemicals, environment, and biological systems, including consequences at local, regional, and global levels.

RECETOX - Centrum pro výzkum toxických látek v prostředí

Since its establishment in 2011, CEITEC has quickly developed into a cutting-edge infrastructure for research which performs highly alongside the best institutes in Europe. Among the main priorities of CEITEC are the promotion of a motivating and dynamic international scientific environment, the provision of state-of-the-art research infrastructure, and the policy of open communication and equal opportunities.

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