Press Releases

Serious impacts on the psyche of descendants of people who have survived the holocaust have been described many times. Experts from Neuroscience Centre, CEITEC Masaryk University are now trying to find biological markers, e.g. changes in the structure of the brain or genetic signature, that would reveal whether the descendants of holocaust survivors are more susceptible to having a higher stress level or, on the contrary, to resist stress better. Scientists are looking for volunteers for their study, i.e. people who have personally survived the holocaust and also two following generations of affected families. However, to be able to compare, they also need respondents who have not been persecuted within the holocaust and their descendants.

The unlucky destiny of two families has made an international team of scientists reveal a genetically conditioned syndrome which causes fatal pulmonary infections with children of about one year of age. Scientists from the Masaryk University have also participated in the research. They were researching the properties of a protein participating in the repair of chromosome damages which otherwise lead to a very rare disease in young children. 

The unlucky destiny of two families has made an international team of scientists reveal a genetically conditioned syndrome which causes fatal pulmonary infections with children of about one year of age. Scientists from the Masaryk University have also participated in the research. They were researching the properties of a protein participating in the repair of chromosome damages which otherwise lead to a very rare disease in young children.

The biologist Pavel Plevka not only deals with the studies of viruses but he also researches the ways how viruses penetrate cells and how new cells are made within the infected cells. “Cells are relatively complicated and it is very demanding to monitor how they change under the influence of a viral infection. In order to improve in evaluating changes, first we want to work with bacteria which are more simple. So, apart from others, we study how the cells of Staphylococcus Aurelius are infected by bacteriophages, i.e. bacterial viruses,” the biologist adds.  

Wood may be used for heating, but also as a raw material for the production of other substances such as vanillin. One way of how to increase its usability has been patented lately by a team of Czech and Norwegian scientists led by Jan Hejátko from the research institute CEITEC MU.

The biologist Pavel Plevka not only deals with the studies of viruses but he also researches the ways how viruses penetrate cells and how new cells are made within the infected cells. “Cells are relatively complicated and it is very demanding to monitor how they change under the influence of a viral infection. In order to improve in evaluating changes, first we want to work with bacteria which are more simple. So, apart from others, we study how the cells of Staphylococcus Aurelius are infected by bacteriophages, i.e. bacterial viruses,” the biologist adds.   

The winner of the award from the International Engineering Fair 2016 goes to a device called LiteScope by a young company NenoVision, which was established as the first spin-off of the Central European Institute of Technology. This additional device to electron microscopes enables not only the imaging of a sample in 3D but also to measure magnetic and electric properties of a sample by the means of atomic force microscopy. 

The Central European Institute of Technology (CEITEC) BUT has officially launched the full operations of its laboratories. The cutting edge research and development centre, located near the Pod Palackého Vrchem Campus, represents excellence on a European-wide scale. Within the CEITEC project, Brno University of Technology is responsible for research projects focusing on advanced materials and advanced nanotechnologies and microtechnologies.

A new method developed by experts from CEITEC Masaryk University and the University Hospital Brno (FN Brno) will help doctors to estimate how patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia and B-cell lymphomas will react to the latest treatment. It is based on measuring the level of molecules which regulate the activity of B-lymphocytes, i.e. the immune systems cells which are subject to cancerous growth.  This method has been newly patented in the Czech Republic.

EU-LIFE nominated for the new Open Science Policy Platform at the European Commission. The Directorate-General for Research and Innovation at the European Commission established a Commission Advisory Group to provide advice about the development and implementation of open science policy in Europe.