NOVEMBER

Petr Beier was awarded the Alfred Bader prize 2013

Dr. Petr Beier, senior group leader at IOCB, was awarded the Alfred Bader prize 2013 in organic chemistry for his work in organic chemistry of fluorinated compounds.

NOVEMBER

Jiří Václavík was awarded the 2013 Gaudeamus prize

Jiří Václavík, working in the group of Dr. Petr Beier, was awarded the 2013 Gaudeamus Prize (in the frame of Czech Intellect contest) for his work in the area of asymmetric transfer hydrogenation - a synthetic method especially useful for the production of pharmaceuticals.

NOVEMBER

Ondřej Maršálek, former Ph.D. student of Pavel Jungwirth, awarded...

Ondřej Maršálek, working in the group of Prof. Pavel Jungwirth, was awarded the 2013 Doctorandus' Prize (Prize of Czech Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports in the frame of Česká hlava contest) for his work in area of molecular simulations of water-ionizing radiation' interactions. Congratulations!

The work of Dr. Maršálek deals with molecular simulations of the activity of ionizing radiation on water and the characteristics of a hydrated electron created in this way - an electron "dissolved in water". These events take place on a short time scale of hundredths to units of picoseconds, which is a period during which light moves roughly a third of a millimetre. The calculations of Dr. Maršálek describes and analyses them in detail and thus aids in their comprehension. One of the processes described in his work is so far below the resolution capability of even peak experiments abroad.

The methods used are significantly demanding in terms of computer time and so Dr. Maršálek had to devote himself also to the question of the effective use of the accessible program equipment and computer resources. The results of his work have a practical significance everywhere an aqueous environment is exposed to ionizing radiation, hence for instance in the treatment and storage of nuclear waste or in the radiation of malignant tumours.

OCTOBER

Jana Dytrtová awarded...

Dr. Jana Jaklová Dytrtová was awarded the prize for the best poster in analytical chemistry during EUROANALYSIS XVII 2013 confernece in Warszaw. Award is sponsored by jAnalytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry.

The downloadable poster (pdf file).

SEPTEMBER

Dr. Zdeněk Havlas and Mrs. Božena Petschová were awarded by Academic medals of honor

Prestigious awards received from hands of President of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic Prof. Jiří Drahoš four prominent workers of Academy in September 12th, 2013. Awarded were: Academic medal of honour De scientia et humanitate optime meritis - Dr. Zdeněk Havlas (Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of AS CR), Gregor Johann Mendel medal - Prof. František Sehnal (Biological Center of AS CR) and two Academic medals of merit – Božena Petschová (Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of AS CR), and Dr. Vít Našinec (Biological Center of AS CR).

Photogallery from the ceremony.

AUGUST

Petra Ménová - winner of the ACS International Activities Poster Award

Petra Ménová, a Ph.D. student of the Institute of Chemical Technology Prague working in the group of M. Hocek at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry ASCR, has won the ACS International Activities Award for the best poster presentation of women presenters <40 years of age at the 44th World Chemistry Congress IUPAC in Istanbul (August 11-16, 2013). The award consists of a certificate and a 2,500 USD travel award to participate at one of the next ACS meetings in the U.S.A. The award was given for her poster entitled Preparation of Modified Oligonucleotides by Nicking Enzyme Amplification Reaction, which reports on a new enzymatic methodology for production of short base-modified oligonucleotides suitable as labeled primers for PCR. The award was presented by Dr. Marinda Li Wu, the president of the American Chemical Society.

JULY

Jiří Bufka from Petr Bouř group awarded...

IOCB and Open Science - High shool student Jiří Bufka (Gymnasium Cheb), working in the group of Prof. Petr Bouř, was awarded the Jaroslav Heyrovský Foundation' Prize. His work - "Mineralogic survey of Aš and Cheb regions" - where the Raman spectroscopy have been used for minerals characterization, was also nominated for international contest of the high-school students scientific projects.

JUNE

Otto Wichterle Award 2013 - Petr Cígler and Martin Dračínský

Petr Cígler and Martin Dračínský, two young scientist from our Institute, have been awarded the Otto Wichterle Award, an honour given by the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic to stimulate and encourage selected, exceptionally outstanding, promising young scientists at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic for their remarkable contributions to the advancement of scientific knowledge in a given area of science.

JANUARY

Our scientists in Nature

Insulin receptor signalling has a central role in mammalian biology, regulating cellular metabolism, growth, division, differentiation and survival. Despite more than three decades of investigation, the three-dimensional structure of the insulin-insulin receptor complex has proved elusive, confounded by the complexity of producing the receptor protein. In this study, the researchers from Australia, USA, United Kingdom and Czech Republic present the first view of the interaction of insulin with its primary binding site on the insulin receptor, on the basis of four crystal structures of insulin or highly potent insulin analogue developed in IOCB in Prague (Dr. Jiří Jiráček group) bound to truncated insulin receptor constructs. Together, our findings provide an explanation for a wealth of biochemical data from the insulin receptor and IGF-1 receptor systems relevant to the design of therapeutic insulin analogues.

John G. Menting, Jonathan Whittaker, Mai B. Margetts, Linda J. Whittaker, Geoffrey K. W. Kong, Brian J. Smith, Christopher J. Watson, Lenka Žáková, Emília Kletvíková, Jiří Jiráček, Shu Jin Chan, Donald F. Steiner, Guy G. Dodson, Andrzej M. Brzozowski, Michael A. Weiss, Colin W. Ward & Michael C. Lawrence.:
How insulin engages its primary binding site on the insulin receptor.
Nature 493, 241-245 (2013).

JANUARY

Prof. Holý - The personality of the Year 2012

Personality of the Year 2012 of newspaper Hospodářské Noviny is Professor Antonín Holý...