About the group

The Hof Fluorescence Group is a part of the Biophysical Chemistry Department at the Jaroslav Heyrovský Institute of Physical Chemistry, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic (ASCR).

We are interested in the development of new fluorescence methods and their application in the research of structure, functionality and dynamics of biomembranes; single molecule spectroscopy in biological systems, dynamics characterization in model and biomembranes on the picosecond to millisecond time scale; characterisation of DNA condensation processes relevant to gene therapy; advanced in vivo fluorescence microscopy.

There is a wide range of methods we employ in our studies. These range from the Solvent Relaxation (SR), Ellipsometry, Fluorescence Correlation Spectroscopy (FCS), to the newly developed Fluorescence Lifetime Correlation Spectroscopy (FLCS), Dynamic Saturation Optical Microscopy (DSOM) and Photo-activated Localization Microscopy (PALM).

In 2006 the group became the coordinator of the National Research Centre "Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy in Biological and Medical Sciences" that is financed by the Ministry of Education.

In 2011 the group was awarded by the PRAEMIUM ACADEMIAE by The Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, ensuring the further dynamic development of the group.