Grant Projects at the Department of Genetics and Microbiology
National Grants
Research projects at the Department have been supported by numerous domestic grants since the introduction of the grant system in the Czech Republic, and the Department continues to thrive in this trend. This primarily includes a series of projects funded by the Czech Science Foundation, and the Technology Agency of the Czech Republic.
The Department members have also been always actively involved in projects under various programmes organized by the Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sports of the Czech Republic, that finance higher education research in the Czech Republic. The Operational Programme Johannes Amos Comenius (OP JAK), running from 2021-2027 and co-financed by the European Union, is a prime example of such programme and a significant current source of research funding, with two research groups from the Department (the Laboratory of Biology of Yeast Colonies and the Laboratory of RNA Biochemistry) participating as co-researchers within project "LasApp" and "RNA4T: RNA for therapy", respectively.
Additionally, other projects at the Department are or have been supported by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic or the Ministry of the Interior of the Czech Republic.
Within the framework of research funding at Charles University, Department members currently actively participate, e.g., in the University Research Centers (UNCE) system, as well as the COOPERATIO programme starting in 2022. From 2021-2023, Klára Grantz Šašková, Ph.D. (Laboratory of Proteases), received grant support from the Charles University PRIMUS research programme aimed at supporting young top researchers in establishing and developing new scientific groups and laboratories.
Doctoral students at the Department are also very successful in obtaining grants supported by the Charles University Grant Agency.
Five research groups at the Department (the Laboratory of Molecular and Tumour Virology, the Laboratoy of Immunotherapy, the Laboratory of RNA Biochemistry, the Laboratory of Proteases and the Laboratory of Virology) are currently involved in a nationwide project of the National Institute of Virology and Bacteriology, partially co-financed by the European Union.
International Grants
The Department’s research groups are successful in obtaining grant projects not only nationalwide but also in international competition.
Prof. Zdena Palková, Ph.D., from the Laboratory of Biology of Yeast Colonies, has been awarded two grants from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute ("Studies of Signals Involved in the Development of Multicellular Structures - Yeast Colonies" and "Multicellular Yeast Communities: Signalling, Differentiation and Long-Term Survival"). She was also the principal investigator for a Czech-Norwegian research programme project (EEA grants/Norway grants) titled "3D yeast colony genomics: A model for cancer progression and development of drug resistance in biofilms".
Assoc. Prof. Ruth Tachezy, Ph.D. from the Laboratory of Molecular and Tumour Virology, was a principal investigator for the project "Metagenomic analysis of the virome of the honeybee (Apis mellifera) in the Czech Republic" within the Central Europe Leuven Strategic Alliance (CELSA) consortium between 2017 and 2019, and she was also a co-researcher in the HERA project "Strengthening National Infrastructure to Increase Whole Genome Sequencing (WGS) Capacity and ‘Discriminatory’ RT PCR with regard to National Preparedness for the Covid-19 Pandemic in the Czech Republic", funded by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control between 2021 and 2022. She and her group are now engaged in the programme Horizon2020 DURABLE (2023-2026).
The Laboratory of Virology under the then leadership of Assoc. Prof. Jitka Forstová, Ph.D., was also the lead institution for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute project "Polyoma Late Antigens: Interactions, Functions and Utilisation" and a co-investigator for the European Commission Biotechnology Program project "Polyomavirus Pseudocapsids as Vectors. Applications for Genetic and Immunological Therapeutic Purposes of Modified VP1 Pseudocapsids". Currently, its members participate in the ERC-CZ project "Smart photosensitizers: highly-efficient, activatable and aptamer-targeted (SPs-HEAT)".
The Laboratory of Bacterial Physiology, under the leadership of Assoc. Prof. Ivo Konopásek, Ph.D., previously participated in an international project within the Fifth Framework Program of the European Union "Detoxified Adenylate Cyclase Toxin: A Major Improvement for the Development of Safe, Efficient and Multipurpose Vaccines".
The Laboratory of Arachnid Cytogenetics, led by Assoc. Prof. Jiří Král, Ph.D., contributed to the research project supported by the US National Science Foundation "Global Survey and Inventory of Solifugae".
An overview of grant projects undertaken by the Department of Genetics and Microbiology over the past 10 years can be found in the following graphs:
