Michal Cifra, Ph.D.

Research interests:

Bioelectrodynamics, bioelectromagnetics, nanosensors, proteins, microtubules, biological electron excited states and ultraweak photon emission, biosignals.

Professional activities:

• 2013 – now: Team leader - Institute of Photonics and Electronics, CAS, Czech Republic
• 2014 – 2015: Visiting researcher, 8 months, University of Chicago, James Franck Institute / Physical Sciences Div. (Dept. of Chemistry), Chicago, USA
• 2013 Sept. : Visiting researcher, National Institute for Materials Science, Tsukuba, Japan
• 2010 – 2012: Postdoctoral researcher, Institute of Photonics and Electronics, CAS, Czech Republic
• 2010 Sept. : Erasmus Mundus visiting researcher, State University of Campinas, Brazil
• 2005 – 2010: 3 months total – Visiting student researcher, International Institute of Biophysics, Neuss, Germany
• 2004 – 2005: 7 months total - Student researcher (HiWi) / Socrates Erasmus fellow / Leonardo da Vinci trainee, ELCAT GmbH & Institut für Hochfrequenztechnik, RWTH Aachen, Germany

Education:

• PhD., 2009, Radioelectronics, Department of Electromagnetic Field, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic 
• Ing. (M.Sc.), 2006, Biomedical Engineering, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Žilina, Slovakia

Current research projects:

• Radio-frequency characterization of microtubules using micro- and nanosensors

Selected past projects:

• Photonic biosignals: measurement and characterization
• Measurement and Analysis of Local Electric Oscillations and Optical Emission of Biomolecular Nanostructures

Supervision of students and postdocs:

supervisor /co-supervisor of 10 master students (9 finished / 1 ongoing), 6 doctoral students (graduated: D. Havelka / 5 ongoing: M. Poplová (Nerudová), K. Červinková, O. Krivosudský, J. Průša, P. Vahalová), 2 postdocs (ongoing: O. Kučera, D. Havelka) from 5 institutions:
Czech Republic:   

• Institute of Photonics and Electronics, The Czech Academy of Sciences
• Czech Technical University in Prague (Faculty of Electrical Engineering)
• Charles University in Prague (Faculty of Mathematics and Physics)
• University of Chemical Technology (Faculty of Chemical Engineering)

Slovakia:           

• University of Žilina (Faculty of Electrical Engineering)

Teaching activities:

• 2015: Lecturer – invited intensive 16 h total course on Bioelectromagnetics at the Instituto Tecnológico de Zacatepec, Mexico
• 2011: innovation of study courses: Biological effects of electromagnetic fields, Electromagnetic field in biological systems, Medical applications of biological EM field effects, Applications of EM field in medicine - Faculty of Electrical Engineering / Czech Technical University in Prague
• 2006 – 2008: Teaching assistant, 4 semesters – Theory of Electromagnetic Field / Waves and Transmission Lines / Faculty of Electrical Engineering / Czech Technical University in Prague / Czech Republic

Organization of Scientific meetings:

• 2007 – 2015: Chairman / Local organizer / Scientific committee member of 9 scientific meetings with 1000 participants in total. Selected meetings: 
• 2012: Co-organizer / Fields of the Cell / 100 participants / Basel, Switzerland 
• 2011: Chairman of the organizing committee / Electrodynamic activity of living cells / 100 participants / Prague, Czech Republic (CR) - http://dx.doi.org/10.1088/1742-6596/329/1/011001
• 2008: Organizing committee member / 14th Conference on Microwave Techniques / 120 participants / Prague, Czech Republic - http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/mostRecentIssue.jsp?punumber=4539495
• 2007: Member of Local Organization Committee / Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium / 400 participants / Prague, Czech Republic - http://piers.org/piers2k7Prague/

Membership in scientific societies:

2015 –     International Society for Bioelectromagnetism, member
2015 –     Biophysical Society, member
2013 –     CSBS - Czechoslovak Biological Society, member
2013 –     MRS - Material Research Society, member
2010 –     OSA - Optical Society of America, member
2008 –     URSI – International Union of Radio Science (2014 – Member of national committee)
2007 –     IEEE, Senior Member (2015) (Photonics Society (2013 - ), Young Professionals (2013 - ), Life Sciences Community (2013 - ), Czechoslovakia section (2007 - ))
2007 –     SPIE - International society for optics and photonics, member

Awards and honors:

• 2015: International Travel Award to support attendance to the Biophysical Society Annual meeting 2015 and to present outstanding achievements in biophysics research; Biophysical Society / Baltimore / USA
• 2014: European Molecular Biology Laboratory Advanced Training Centre Corporate Partnership Programme Fellowship / Heidelberg / Germany
• 2009: Diploma from Natural Sciences section of 13th International Student Conference of Electrical Engineering – POSTER
• 2008: Young Scientist Award / URSI – International Union of Radio Science, Belgium/USA
• 2007 – 2008: 5 Czech national scholarships (Czechoslovak section of IEEE, Hlávka foundation, Stanislav Hanzl foundation, 2 x scholarship from Rectorate of the Czech Technical University in Prague)
• 2006: Student scientific competition award, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Žilina, Slovakia
  

Selected publications:

1. Daniel Fels, Michal Cifra and Felix Scholkmann: Fields of the Cell. Research Signpost, 2015. Link
2. Ondrej Kucera, Katerina Cervinkova, Michaela Nerudova and Michal Cifra: Spectral Perspective on the Electromagnetic Activity of Cells. Spectral Perspective on the Electromagnetic Activity of Cells, vol. 15, issue 6, 2015. doi: 10.2174/1568026615666150225103105
3. D. Havelka, M. Cifra and O. Kučera: Multi-mode electro-mechanical vibrations of a microtubule: In silico demonstration of electric pulse moving along a microtubule. Applied Physics Letters , vol. 104, no. 24, 2014. doi: 10.1063/1.4884118
4. M. Cifra and J. Pospíšil: Ultra-weak photon emission from biological samples: Definition, mechanisms, properties, detection and applications. Journal of Photochemistry and Photobiology B: Biology, Link
5. D. Havelka, O. Kučera, M.A. Deriu and M. Cifra: Electro-acoustic behavior of the mitotic spindle: a semi-classical coarse-grained model. PLoS ONE, vol. 9, no. 1, 2014. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.008650
6. O. Kučera and M. Cifra: Cell-to-Cell Signaling Through Light: Just a Ghost of Chance? Cell Communication and Signaling, vol. 11, no. 87, 2013. doi: 10.1186/1478-811X-11-87
7. Cifra, M. "Electrodynamic eigenmodes in cellular morphology ", BioSystems, vol. 109, no. 3, p. 356–366, 2012
8. Havelka, D., Cifra, M., Kučera, O., Pokorný, J., Vrba, J., "High-frequency electric field and radiation characteristics of cellular microtubule network ", Journal of Theoretical Biology, vol. 286, no. 1, p. 31-40, 2011 
9. Cifra, M., Fields, J. Z., Farhadi, A., "Electromagnetic cellular interactions", Progress in Biophysics and Molecular Biology, vol 105, no. 3, p. 223-246, 2011 
10. Pokorný, J., Vedruccio, C., Cifra, M., Kučera, O., "Cancer physics: Diagnostics based on damped cellular elasto-electrical vibrations in microtubules", European Biophysics Journal, vol. 40, no. 6, 747-759, 2011 
11. Cifra, M., Pokorný, J., Havelka, D., Kučera, O., "Electric field generated by axial longitudinal vibration modes of microtubule", BioSystems, vol. 100, no. 2, p. 122 - 131, 2010 
12. Kučera, O., Cifra, M., Pokorný, J., "Technical aspects of measurement of cellular electromagnetic activity", European Biophysics Journal, vol. 39, no. 10, p. 1465-1470, 2010 
13. Cifra, M., "Study of electromagnetic oscillations of yeast cells in kHz and GHz region", PhD Thesis, 2009, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic 
14. Cifra, M., Pokorný, J., Jelínek, F., Kučera, O., "Vibrations of electrically polar structures in biosystems give rise to electromagnetic field: theories and experiments", In Proceedings of Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium 2009, Moscow, Russia, August 18-21. Cambridge: The Electromagnetics Academy, 2009, p. 138 - 142. ISSN 1559-9450 
15. Jelínek F., Cifra, M., Pokorný, J., Vaniš, J., Hašek, J., Šimša, J., Frýdlová, I., “Measurement of electrical oscillations and mechanical vibrations of yeast cells membrane around 1 kHz”, Electromagnetic Biology and Medicine, vol. 28, no. 2, p. 223 - 232, 2009 
16. Cifra, M., Pokorný, J., Jelínek, F., Hašek, J., "Measurement of Yeast Cell Electrical Oscillations around 1 kHz", In Proceedings of Progress In Electromagnetics Research Symposium 2008, Cambridge, MA, USA, July 2-6. Cambridge: The Electromagnetics Academy, 2008, p. 780-784. ISSN 1559-9450 
17. Van Wijk, E., Van Wijk, R.,Cifra, M., “Spontaneous ultra-weak photon emission from human hands varies diurnally”, In Proceedings of SPIE -- Volume 6633 Biophotonics 2007: Optics in Life Science, Jürgen Popp, Gert von Bally, Editors, 2007, Jul. 3, 66331J Cifra, M., Van Wijk, E., Koch, H., Bosman, S., Van Wijk, R., “Spontaneous Ultra-Weak Photon Emission from Human Hands Is Time Dependent”, Radioengineering, 2007, Vol. 16, n. 2, p. 15-19, ISSN 1210-2512
18. Cifra, M., “Measurement of spontaneous photon emission from the human body: technical aspects, parameters, time and temperature dependent fluctuations of photon emission”, master degree thesis, University of Žilina, Slovak Republic 

Invited Lectures:

• 2012: Biophysical Aspects of Complexity in Health and Disease / Lugano, Switzerland, 18-19 May
• 2011: Conf. on the Physics, Chemistry and Biology of Water / Vermont, USA, 20-23 October
• 2011: Electromagnetic fields and Quantum phenomena in the BioSystems / Poznań, Poland, 20 May
• 2010: Summer School on Biophotonics and Applications of Biophotons, International Institute for Biophysics / Neuss, Germany, 1-6 August
• 2008 – 2015: 8 other invited conference talks and invited local seminars in Czech Republic, France, Japan, Mexico, USA

Featured in Media:

2015: Czechoslovak Radio in Chicago – Friday night interview on bioelectromagnetics
2012: TEDx Bratislava – popular talk on electromagnetic (optical) activity of living cells
2012: Slovak Economy Journal – interview about biomedical applications of cellular electrodynamics
2008: Czech Radio – together with a vice-dean for science, interview about student research

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