Press releases

Research in languages other than English is critically important for biodiversity conservation and is shockingly under-utilised internationally, according to an international research team.

An international team of scientists led by Tomáš Pluskal from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague) has introduced a new generation of software enabling scientists to analyse large volumes of data from mass spectrometry, a technique that separates chemicals by their weights. The open-source project MZmine provides a new window into the chemical space that surrounds us and lives within. The latest advances in MZmine 3 are now published in a Nature Biotechnology paper.

An international team of parasitologists and medicinal chemists from the BIOCEV Centre has developed and successfully tested a substance against a deadly parasite. Naegleria fowleri attacks the human brain and despite all modern treatments, 97% of cases end fatally. The new substance has been shown to cure the infection in mice. Along with it, scientists have discovered other anti-parasitic agents that could be used against malaria or sleeping sickness in the future.

Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague) and Gilead Sciences announced today that the Gilead Sciences Research Centre (GSRC) at IOCB Prague has been extended to address areas of high unmet medical need. Gilead will provide financial support and collaborate on several projects at IOCB across virology, inflammation, and oncology.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket - this old saying is also followed by cuckoos. This was discovered by a team of scientists from the Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the CAS, the Faculty of Science of the University of South Bohemia, and the University of Essex. The results of more than 15 years of research showed that when multiple cuckoo eggs were found in a great reed warbler nest, they always came from different females.

Common noctule females "plan" cautiously whether they will give birth to one or two pups. The main criterion for the decision is fat reserves. Research by scientists from the University of Veterinary Sciences in Brno and the Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) showed that females that had the largest fat reserves after hibernation gave birth to twins, while the lightest ones always had only one pup. Biologists have also found that females of medium weight or size can start pregnancy with two embryos, absorb one of them when stressed, and deliver only one pup.

Discoveries at a major new fossil site in Morocco suggest giant arthropods – relatives of modern-day creatures including shrimps, insects, and spiders – dominated oceans 470 million years ago. Early evidence from the site at Taichoute, once undersea but now a desert, records numerous large “free-swimming” arthropods. More research is needed to analyse these fragments, but based on previously described specimens, the giant arthropods could be up to two metres long. The new study was published in the journal Scientific Reports.

A female scientist from the Astronomical Institute of the CAS was part of the team that for the first time achieved a long-term observation of an extremely rare event: a stellar tidal rip. Astronomer Christina Thönea was involved through her observing programmes on telescopes located at the Calar Alto Observatory and in the Canary Islands. The Nature journal has now published a paper on the research, called “A very luminous jet from disruption of a star by a massive black hole”.

From the lab to the store and the field. Scientists from the Laboratory of Growth Regulators, a joint facility of the Institute of Experimental Botany of the CAS and Palacký University in Olomouc, have prepared a new, highly effective plant growth stimulator called MTU. Under licence with a British partner, the product containing the patented Czech substance is already being sold to farmers in the UK. Next year, it will be available in other European countries, including the Czech Republic.

The management of one of the largest Large Research Infrastructures (LRI) currently being built in Europe, the FAIR accelerator laboratory, spent two hectic days in the Czech Republic on November 24 and 25, 2022.