Share the newsletter with your colleagues! They can subscribe HERE.
If your email is not displaying correctly, use the web version of the newsletter HERE.

Sustainability of national institutes or après nous, le déluge?

The fourth year of existence of the National Institute for Cancer Research (NICR) is, given the project period, also the last year of its financing. The partners pledged to secure at least another three years of its continuation, but the resources have not yet been clarified. ‘From the perspective of a physician, scientist, and director of the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute, which is part of the NICR, I see it as very important that NICR should continue. I am convinced about it for at least three reasons: communication,

education of the new generation of scientists, and internationalisation’, says Marek Svoboda on this subject. He adds: ‘In just four years, NICR has accomplished a vast amount of work, and that not only in the number of publications, grant applications, doctoral programmes, or junior research groups. If it started this well, I am quite sure that it would contribute to the sustainability of excellent cancer research in the Czech Republic also in the future.’

Zdeněk Škrott:

What is crucial is the real impact of research

Success of the consortium should be evaluated mainly from the perspective of scientific and social impact of research. When applying the traditional academic metrics of evaluation, one should definitely look more at the quality rather than quantity of outputs. It is also important to see whether the research will have a real impact on clinical practice and technological innovations. Crucial and excellent research is naturally also interesting for private companies.

Veronika Vymetálková:

Let us make sure that joint projects continue!

The know-how and infrastructure of NICR should be fully utilized to further develop scientific collaboration and innovation. A key step is to continue implementing joint research projects and to foster an open scientific community. But it would also be useful to establish a centralised platform for sharing data and results – it would facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration and accelerate the implementation of new findings. 

Dynamics of compartment-specific proteomic landscapes of hepatotoxic and cholestatic models of liver fibrosis.

Marketa Jirouskova, Karel Harant…, Martin Gregor.

eLife.

2025 April 

DOI: 10.7554/eLife.98023

PMID: 40197391

Cell death signaling in human erythron: erythrocytes lose the complexity of cell death machinery upon maturation

Anton Tkachenko, Ondrej Havranek.

Apoptosis.

2025 April

DOI: 10.1007/s10495-025-02081-5

PMID: 39924584

Protein crystallization and structure determination at room temperature in the CrystalChip

Petr Pachl…, Pavlína Řezáčová, Sylvain Engilberge, Claude Sauter.

FEBS Open Bio.

2025 April

DOI: 10.1002/2211-5463.13932

PMID: 39572886

All research should go a little against the mainstream

‘Many research groups focus on tumour biomarkers, both here and abroad. But if research is to make sense and be financeable, it must be original and have some added

value at least for the scientific community, by adding to existing knowledge, but ideally for the society as a whole’, says Roman Hrstka, leader of an eponymous research group that is part of NICR and based at the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute. Aside from that, Roman Hrstka is the managing director of Bank of Biological Material of the Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute and a national coordinator of the BBMRI.cz - Biobanking and Biomolecular Resources Research Infrastructure. He sees space for improvement in terms of greater awareness of what biobanks offer and emphasises that any opportunity to increase their visibility within the scientific community is welcome.

DNA day for kids and adults

A small visual sample from almost 300 works submitted in competitions announced by the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the CAS and the NICR called ‘Children draw DNA’ (for preschoolers and pupils of lower classes of elementary school) and ‘What will the evil N’adoor do next?’ (for pupils of higher classes of elementary school and secondary schools).

Check out also the

You will find out who won the main awards at celebrations of the DNA World Day in the Faustus Haus in Prague. 

RP 3: New findings about tumour biomarkers 

In 2024, RP 3 has achieved notable results through collaboration within NICR and between NICR teams and outside partners. The almost 40 published studies contributed to a further refinement of cancer diagnostics and thus also to a personalisation of treatment. 

As planned in the project, research focused on colorectal tumours, pancreatic ductal carcinoma, malignant melanoma, squamous carcinoma of breast and prostate, and on haematological malignancies. As indicated by Karel Smetana and Ondřej Slabý, the main leaders of RP 3, in the final year of the project efforts, will focus on translating achieved results into clinical practice.

Indicators are not just publications…

One of the main aims of NICR is a systematic creation of conditions for professional growth and development of not only early-career researchers in oncology. Emphasis is also placed on expanding research skills, improvements in the training of scientists, and support of career development at all stages of a professional career. 

Over 40 successfully defended dissertations, 8 new Dozents (associate professors), and 6 new professors in the course of NICR as well as further habilitations and appointments in the works and dozens of students preparing for their Ph.D. defence reflect an improving quality of the academic environment and confirm the potential of further development in this area.  

Women in science would benefit from possibilities of combining a family with a career, says Lenka Bešše

Novinky.cz, 16 February 2025

How can one combine work with caring for a family and how different is research work in the Czech Republic and abroad? This and more is discussed in an interview with Lenka Bešše, head of one of the research teams of NICR, who spent nine years of her scientific career in Switzerland, which is also where her children were born. She is thus in the right position to compare.

When science and business mutually inspire each other 

Medical Tribune, 25 February 2025

This year’s Neuron Award for connecting science and business, which recognises extraordinary scientific transfer from basic research to commercial use, has been awarded to the SophoMer s.r.o. academic biotechnology startup. Its scientific team from a collaborating laboratory of the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry of the CAS, which is part of NICR, is headed by Tomáš Etrych.

Tumours are undisciplined cells that need to be shown how to behave, says Václav Liška

Žena-IN, 4 March 2025

Václav Liška works as a surgeon at the Faculty of Medicine of the Charles University in Pilsen and is the head of the Laboratory of tumour treatment and tissue regeneration, which is part of the NICR. He and his colleagues currently work on constructing tissue models of the liver with the aim of creating an adequately functioning artificial organ. 

The discovery of Czech scientists brings hope: It could tame the most aggressive brain tumours

CNN Prima News, 13 March 2025

Researchers from the NICR who work in the Laboratory of tumour cell biology at the Institute of Biochemistry and Experimental Oncology of the First Faculty of Medicine of the Charles University and NICR have made an important discovery: they found that collagen I and fibronectin, which both play a key role in the spread of glioblastoma, produce cells similar to pericytes. Their study was published in the Brain Pathology journal. 

Could aspirin prevent the formation of metastases? It does in mice 

CNN Prima News, 22 March 2025

In studies that used mouse models of malignant melanoma, aspirin has shown a potential to prevent the formation and spread of metastases. According to Marián Hajdúch, head of the Institute of Molecular and Translational Medicine of the Faculty of Medicine of Palacky University and medical director of NICR, this study of the University College London does bring some crucial insights but one ought to remain cautious. ‘The way I see it, it will take a bit of time to understand to what extent these results could be applied to the treatment of human patients. But they certainly help us to better understand how we should work with this discovery further’, says Hajdúch.

Hepatocellular carcinoma and plectin-mediated cytoskeletal communication

Medical Tribune, 25 March 2025

A small organometallic ruthenium-based molecule could be a promising candidate drug for hepatocellular carcinoma, especially in terms of stopping its transition from a localised to a metastatic disease. These are the implications of a study, recently published in the eLife journal, which was conducted by researchers from the Laboratory of integrative biology of the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the CAS, which is part of NICR. 

In Amongst the Cells: How can we spot the future stars of science? 

18 March 2025

In March, the series of podcasts about science fighting cancer continued with an episode dedicated to the question of whether science is sufficiently open to new talents, especially in terms of timing. Petr Mazouch, Vice-President of the Central Committee of Secondary-School Expert Activities, and Michal Kolář, lector of a NICR workshop (‘The mysterious species under the microscope) have discussed, in the Institute of Molecular Genetics of CAD the mission of the Secondary School Expert Activities (SOČ) and the content of workshops for secondary school students organised right at the research institutes and in the laboratories.  ‬

Solstice with Science Festival

19–21 June 2025

Opava

A festival of culture in the historic centre of Opava is a place where music, literature, theatre, and inspiring debates meet and mingle. This time, Jiří Drábek a Josef Srovnal, two researchers from the NICR who are based close to this town and share a passion for oncogenetics, will take their place on the science stage. 

3rd Summer School on Tumor Microenvironment and Immunity

24.–27 June 2025

Nové Hrady

The Czech Immunological Society in collaboration with the Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences again organise a summer school focused on tumour microenvironment and immunity. The event is intended for doctoral students and recent graduates from doctoral studies. Once again, the summer school is organised under the auspices of NICR and other organisations. 

CACR 2025 – Registration had started!

24.–26 November 2025

Hotel NH Collection Olomouc Congress

You can already register for the Czech Annual Cancer Research Meeting, which will once again take place in the autumn in Olomouc. Do not forget that deadline for abstract submission is already on 30 June 2025. 

www.nuvr.cz

If you do not want to receive these emails, unsubscribe HERE