Hof Fluorescence Group

The National Research Centre

"Advanced Fluorescence Microscopy in Biological and Medical Sciences" financed by the Ministry of Education of the Czech Republic. The centre is coordinated by Martin Hof and brings together the following institutions:

J.Heyrovsky Institute of Physical Chemisty, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i. - Martin Hof Prof. Dr.
Faculty of Science, Charles University - Palková Zdena Doc. RNDr. Csc.
Institute of Physiology, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i. -
Kubínová Lucie RNDr. Csc.
Institute of Molecular Genetics Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, v.v.i. -
Hozák Pavel Doc. RNDr. DrSc. , Blahoš Jaroslav MUDr. PhD.

Basic Philosophy of the Centre:

Fluorescence illumination and observation are the most rapidly expanding microscopy techniques employed today, both in the medical and biological sciences. This fact has spurred advances in chromophore and fluorophore technology together with a series of new and fascinating technical developments. The newly developed techniques comprise confocal detection, multi-photon and pulsed excitation, laser scanning 3D imaging that employs piezo- and galvano-scanning units, stereological methods, image analysis as well as deconvolution algorithms, time-resolved imaging. A great number of methods has been established including (fully quantitative) Foerster resonance energy transfer (FRET) analysis, fluorescence recovery after photobleaching (FRAP), fluorescence loss in photobleaching (FLIP), single- and multi- channel fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (FCS), time-resolved fluorescence correlation spectroscopy (TR-FCS), multi-focus fluorescence correlation spectroscopy and a variety of specialized single molecule fluorescence analysis methods.

However, in most laboratories, expertise is restricted to some of these specialized techniques, and the full potential of advanced fluorescence microscopy in the investigated biological systems is only partially exploited. Moreover, biologists are often not aware of all the possibilities of fluorescence microscopy and, thus, only in some exceptional cases the cutting edge technologies are dedicated to answering questions in cell biology. This project aims to overcome these limitations by promoting close collaboration of two complementary fluorescence microscopy laboratories that practically cover the entire needed expertise in advanced microscopy with four teams formulating important questions in cell biology. Thus, the main objective is to create a network of scientists that would make the possibilities presently offered by advanced fluorescence microscopy available to the leading groups in medical and biological sciences.