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Hana Macíčková Cahová, head of the junior group of chemical biology at IOCB Prague, received the prestigious Neuron Award for Young Scientists for 2018 presented annually by the Neuron Fund to young and promising scientists up to 33 years of age.

Photo © Nadační fond Neuron, 2018

Dr. Cahová focuses on basic research and discovery of new chemical structures of RNA. These structures play an important role in yet unknown biochemical and immunological processes at both cell and body level. "These discoveries can lead to new possibilities of the treatment of viral, bacterial or oncological diseases," she says. "The RNA has long been thought to be merely a carrier of information, and it is probably still being taught in schools. But the opposite is true. RNA molecules do so much more, from catalysis to regulation of cell processes. I am convinced that there are still many discoveries to make in the field of RNA," she adds.

Hana Macíčková Cahová received her doctorate at IOCB Prague under the supervision of Michal Hocek and she participated in 11 publications in the group. She later worked as a postdoc at the University of Heidelberg, where she received the Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship. In Heidelberg, she published two first-author papers - her publication in Nature (the best paper of the group so far) describes a new method of studying NAD-RNA. novou metodu studia NAD-RNA.

After the parental break, she received A rating in the ERC Starting Grant 2015 Final for the "Viral RNA Modification" project, which led the IOCB Prague to grant her the Junior Group Leader position and the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports to award her the ERC CZ Grant. In 2016 Hana Macíčková Cahová won the Alfred Bader Award in Bioorganic Chemistry.