Press releases

Ideas bold enough to push the limits of human imagination lie at the heart of the Dream Chemistry Award — a joint initiative of the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IOCB Prague) and the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences (IChF PAS). Success in this prestigious competition is not measured by publication counts or impact factors; instead, proposals are judged by an international scientific committee for their originality, vision, and potential to redefine the field.

Hana Polášek-Sedláčková from the Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences is one of 28 young investigators who will be active members of the EMBO Young Investigator Programme for the next four years. Their research projects address a broad range of questions in the life sciences, including topics such as the gut microbiome of infants, the demographics of indigenous American populations, the neural blueprint of brain tumours, and the role of the RNA polymerase II in transcription.

Conspecific brood parasitism – a situation where females lay eggs in the nests of other females of the same species – has long been a mystery to scientists. A team from the Institute of Vertebrate Biology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with colleagues from the UK, has now developed an artificial intelligence model that can recognise parasitic eggs in birds with up to 97% accuracy. The new approach, the results of which were published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, could significantly facilitate and reduce the cost of research into this little-studied phenomenon.

A research team at IOCB Prague led by Jiří Kaleta has described a new concept for light-driven molecular motors that remain fully functional even after being anchored to a metal surface, where they continue to perform controlled rotary motion. The scientists have thus overcome one of the main obstacles on the road to fully controllable molecular machines – a development expected to have a major impact on the creation of intelligent materials, among other applications. The study provides deeper insight into the control of motion at the nanoscale. The paper was published in the journal Angewandte Chemie International Edition.

Overcoming a genetic disorder that leads to serious diseases, and examining the relationship between political party systems and social conflicts in the MENA region — these are the goals of two ERC Synergy Grants awarded to researchers from the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS). Each grant provides €9.8 million in funding over six years.

A research team led by Lukáš Čermák, in collaboration with Hana Polášek-Sedláčková’s group, has identified a previously unknown mechanism by which cells monitor the quality of DNA replication. When this control fails, the cell begins to replicate its DNA recklessly, leading to genome instability — a key early step in the development of cancer. The study was published on October 27, 2025, in the prestigious journal Nature Communications.

A fungus that spreads from domestic guinea pigs causes skin infections in children, especially in Europe. A new study by a team from the Institute of Microbiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IMIC CAS) reveals why it is so successful: the fungal skin pathogen apparently helps itself by producing toxin-like substances that facilitate infection of new hosts. These substances, secondary metabolites, can suppress the immune response and thus accelerate the spread of the pathogen among humans.

Scientists have identified an unusual type of brain cell that may play a vital role in progressive multiple sclerosis (MS), likely contributing to the persistent inflammation characteristic of the disease. The discovery, reported last week in Neuron, is a significant step towards understanding the complex mechanisms that drive the disease and provides a promising new avenue for research into more effective therapies for this debilitating condition.

An important task of volcanologists is predicting volcanic eruptions, which, however, is usually very unreliable. Scientists writing in Nature Reviews argue that in order to improve forecasts, it is necessary to study the entire magmatic system of volcanoes as a so-called complex system—similar to the way weather is studied. Improved models of volcanic systems could also help in the search for new deposits of raw materials.

Fendrych, a group leader at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, received the award in honor of his impact on the auxin field at large, including his contributions at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) when he was a postdoc. He is the fourth recipient of the award.