IMG, as well as the entire Academy of Sciences (AS), went through rather an eventful year, partly due to the total economic stagnation but mainly because of the incompetent decisions of the Council for Research, Development and Innovations of the Czech Government, which threatened to bring extremely serious consequences for the AS future. I am glad that the AS employees demonstrated very strong opposition and in their protests received substantial support also from the public and from journalists. Many of us, unfortunately, lost hundreds of hours of valuable time in these “battles”. Despite that, I believe that all this effort was not in vain and that all will come right in the end. I was especially pleased by the active interest of young researchers (namely students) of the platform “Science Alive”.
I think that also in the past year we were successful in what is our raison d'être – good science. We again published tens of scientific reports in peer-reviewed international scientific journals; we transferred a number of practically applicable products to our partner spin-off companies.
Of high importance for scientific life at our Institute was organization of tens of scientific seminars and lectures given by our researchers and by our guests. Our new conference hall (since January 2009 bearing the name “Milan Hašek Auditorium” in honour of Milan Hašek, the founder of our Institute) hosted several international conferences, some also organized by other AS Institutes from the campus. I would like to mention the especially successful “EMBO Workshop on Mitochondria, Apoptosis and Cancer” held in October.
All core facilities and new research groups established after our moving into the new building three years ago were working at a routine basis.
It is gratifying that our research at IMG remains well financially supported by various grant agencies, including even very prestigious international grants. At present, we have at our Institute three co-investigators of grants of the 6th Framework EC Programme, one NIH grant and two EMBO grants. The Institute was awarded two “Research Centers” of the 1M Programme of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic (Center of Applied Genomics, Center of Molecular and Cell Immunology) and our researchers participate in another 1M Center (Center of Targeted Therapeutics). We obtained support for three basic research Centers (Center of Cell Invasiveness in Embryonic Development and Tumour Metastases, Center of Functional Cell Organization, Center of Chemical Genetics), and the Institute researchers also contribute to the work of two other Centers of basic research (Center of Molecular Ecology of Vectors and Pathogens, Fluorescence Microscopy in Biological and Medical Research).
At present, 23 research groups of the Institute are engaged in the topics of molecular and cellular biology, molecular immunology, functional genomics and bioinformatics, study of oncogenes, molecular biology of development, structural biology and mechanisms of receptor signalling. Very positive for the Institute is the presence of about 80 doctoral students and 50 undergraduates. A high number of our scientists actively work as university teachers (e.g., five as professors and six as associate professors; we provide 27 semestral courses at the Universities).
Although we consider basic research as the priority area of the Institute activity, with publications in prestigious international journals as its main output, valuable applied research with particular practical applications is also being developed at our Institute. Even in this area the Institute has achieved significant success, with several well-prospering spin-off companies established in the past years as a result – these companies maintain close collaboration with our research groups.
The high standing of the Institute researchers is testified by a number of awards and prizes, including the membership of three Institute scientists in the Learned Society of the Czech Republic. The Institute represents the Czech Republic in several leading scientific organizations and institutions, including the European Molecular Biology Conference (EMBC), the European Science Foundation (ESF), and the NATO Steering Group of the Science for Peace programme. Four Institute scientists have been elected EMBO members. Others serve on 18 Editorial Boards of scientific journals.
An outstanding success was achieved in 2009 by Professor Jiří Forejt: his team published a seminal paper in one of the most prestigious world journal Science; he was awarded the Prize of the Academy of Sciences and the Prize of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic. Professor Jiří Forejt is holder of the highly prestigious five-year Academy award Premium Academiae; two Institute researchers (Assoc. Prof. Radislav Sedláček and Dr. Petr Svoboda) are awardees of the five-year J.E. Purkynje Fellowship, and until the end of the past year, Dr. Tomáš Brdička was recipient of the three-year Otto Wichterle Award.
The scientists of the Institute of Molecular Genetics are very open to co-operation with the media in popularizing scientific results and explaining the importance of science in general and molecular genetics in particular (see e.g. IMG in media).
As concerns practical projects for the next year, within several weeks we should complete reconstruction of the animal facility for non-mouse models (mainly chicken). In the oncoming year 2010, construction should be started (and I hope also completed) of the kindergarten and gym (belated due to administrative hindrances connected with building authorization), together with essential reconstruction of our breeding facility in Koleč.
Of decisive significance will be the result of the competition within the programme Research and Development for Innovations; IMG is applicant and guarantor of extensive project BIOCEV joining six AS Institutes and Charles University.
I am convinced that despite the present financial problems, a bright future is opening before the Institute of Molecular Genetics, as a continuation of the famous past represented by the names of Milan Hašek, Jan Svoboda, and a number of others.
I wish to thank all Institute employees for their work in the past year and hope that a lot of success awaits us in the oncoming year 2010.
