Research Goals
Due to environmental and socio-economic changes as well as growing interconnection of the world, infectious diseases are becoming an important challenge for human and veterinary medicine. Our main goal is thus interdisciplinary and complex research on human and veterinary pathogens with main emphasis on: discovery and scientific description of novel (emerging) pathogens, consideration the role of microbial pathogens and their vertebrate hosts in their natural ecosystems, co-evolution of pathogens with vertebrate reservoirs, risk assessment, determination of preventive and control measures with regard to suppression of emerging infectious diseases.
Issues addressed:
- ecology of arthropod-borne pathogenic microorganisms (e.g., West Nile and tick-borne encephalitis flaviviruses, spirochaete Borrelia burgdorferi, rickettsia Anaplasma phagocytophilum, and protozoan Babesia spp.) including risk assessment;
- implementing ‘One health’ concept for studying emerging zoonoses;
- white nose syndrome (geomycosis caused by newly described fungus Geomyces destructans) as an emerging threat for european bat population;
- co-evolution of arena-, hanta- and herpesviruses with their reservoir hosts;
- complex research on parasite-host relationship in african primates.
Running projects
Grant agency of the Czech Republic
Co-investigator: 6 Radim Blažek 21
Co-investigator: 7 Dagmar Čížková 21
Investigator: Joëlle Goüy de Bellocq 21
Investigator: 7 Klára Petrželková 21
Individual projects
Investigator: 12 Ivo Rudolf 21
International projects
Investigator: 12 Ivo Rudolf 21
Ministry of Health
Investigator: 12 Ivo Rudolf 21