Research areas
The mission of The Institute of Parasitology is primarily research in parasitology, with a focus on obtaining and presenting new information about the bilogy of the causative agents of parasitic diseases of man and animals. The main areas representing the priorities of the Institute's research are listed below:
Parasites of fish
· Morphology, molecular taxonomy, and pathogenicity of amphizoic amoebae
· Life cycles, ultrastructure and phylogeny of myxosporeans and microsporidia
· Systematics and biology of helminth parasites related to the aquatic environment
Molecular biology of parasitic protists and nematodes
· Functional genomics of the mitochondrion of the flagellate Trypanosoma brucei
· Population structure of the causative agents of leishmaniosis in Europe
· Secondary endosymbiosis and evolution of plastids
· Genetic analysis of the nuclear receptor function in the model nematode Caenorhadbitis elegans
Biology of diseases vectors: molecular interactions involved in pathogen transmission
· Immunology of host-vectors interactions with respect to pathogen transmission
· Molecular and cellular factors of pathogen transmission in ticks
· Molecular ecology of Lyme borreliosis and tick-borne encephalitis with respect to their antigenic structures and protein carbohydrate interactions
· Chemical communication in ticks
Molecular taxonomy and phylogeny of parasites
· Phylogeny of parasitic protists, helminths and arthropods, and host-parasite coevolution
· Parasite distribution and host specificity as the result of coevolutionary and host-switching events
· Molecular phylogeny of the bacteria associated with blood-feeding arthropods
Parasitic protists of man and animals with special reference to opportunistic parasites
· Human parasites with special attention to emerging opportunistic parasites
· Biology, pathogenicity and phylogenetic relationships of coccidia
· Immune response against microsporidia
Facilities and capabilities
Laboratories of the Institue of Parasitology are well equipped with instruments to perform a vast array of methods such as scanning and transmission electron microscopy, histopathology, biochemistry, molecular biology, and tissue and cell cultures. Its facilities make it possible to study host-parasite interactions at the organismal, cellular and molecular levels. The Institute of Parasitology's research activities are augmented by equipment available in other research institutes within the Biology Centre of the Academy of Sciences in České Budějovice. The Institute also possesses an Animal Facility accredited for experiments with laboratory animals as well as the most comprehensive parasitological library in the Czech Republic. It has been approved for work with genetically modified organisms.
The Institute of Parasitology maintains cultures of parasitic protists, cell lines, and laboratory colonies of ticks and mosquitoes. Extensive collections of type and voucher materials (about 3000 species of protists, helminths and parasitic arthropods) are also deposited at the Institute of Parasitology.
Scientific council:
· RNDr. Petr Kopáček, CSc. (Chairman)
· Prof. RNDr. Libor Grubhoffer, CSc.
· Doc. RNDr. Oleg Ditrich, CSc.
· Doc. RNDr. Jan Kopecký , CSc.
· Prof. RNDr. Julius Lukeš, CSc
External members:
· Prof. RNDr. Petr Horák , CSc. (Charles University, Prague)
· Doc. RNDr. Milan Gelnar, CSc. (Masaryk University, Brno)
· Doc. RNDr. Ivo Šauman, CSc. (Institute of Entomology B.C. AVČR, ČB)
