On Friday, September 15, 2025, the national round of the prestigious Falling Walls Lab Czech Republic competition took place at the National Technical Library in Prague. Scientist Tereza Roesel from the Division of Optics of the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences achieved significant success when awarded second place by the expert jury with her project Breaking the Wall of Single-Molecule Detection and, together with Veronika Šedajová from Palacký University, she also won the audience award.
In her three-minute presentation, she introduced her innovative research, a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship project, which focuses on the development of a new generation of nanofluidic scattering microscopy (NSM). This groundbreaking method allows individual biomolecules to be visualized in free motion, without labelling and in real time. The aim of the current project is to further improve the method so that both small and very large biomolecules can be tracked at the same time – something that is currently impossible without fluorescent labels or vacuum studies. The project is part of the activities of the Dioscuri Centre for Single-Molecule Optics, which was opened at the Division of Optics of the Institute of Physics in July 2024.
"It is a great honour for me to have been able to participate in the competition," says Tereza Roesel. "It forced me to formulate our research clearly and comprehensively, and at the same time opened the door to a new community of enthusiastic and inspiring people from various fields. I am very happy that my topic caught the attention of the jury and the audience. The whole experience was made even more enjoyable by the fact that my eight-month-old daughter was in the audience for a while.
"I'm delighted that our division grew last year with the addition of the Dioscuri Centre for Single-Molecule Optics, which has brought new directions and ambitions into our work," notes Alexandr Dejneka, Head of the Division of Optics. "Tereza Roesel's achievement beautifully illustrates that the work we do has a real impact and is resonating beyond the academic sphere. It is a great showcase for both the centre and the entire institute.”
What is Falling Walls Lab?
Falling Walls Lab is an international competition and platform for presenting groundbreaking scientific, entrepreneurial, and social ideas. Young scientists and innovators have three minutes to present their project in English to a panel of experts and the audience. The winners of the national rounds, held in more than 60 countries, advance to the global final, which takes place annually on November 6 in Berlin on the eve of the Falling Walls Conference. The aim of the competition is to break down the imaginary walls of knowledge and connect future leaders across disciplines and continents.
Účastníci českého kola soutěže Fallig Walls Lab.