Developing new sensors for industrial applications, particularly in the fields of water management, foundry and materials engineering is the goal of the NCC for MATCA's next project, Senzorika pro 21. století (Sensing for the 21st century).
Active substances of drugs, alone or in combination with each other, herbs and herbal supplements are metabolized by the human liver. This metabolization can be associated with irreversible damage or even death of the patient. There is no effective prevention against this problem. Additionally, there is no simple drug testing preclinical system to decipher hepatotoxicity issues undoubtfully at early stages of the drug development.
Savings in material and operating costs, less waste, added product value, greener operation. The positive results achieved by Czech manufacturing companies thanks to the collaboration with the Brain4Industry (B4I) consortium, the main coordinator of which is the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences, became the main theme of the Společná cesta k digitalizaci českých výrobců (Joint Journey of Czech Manufacturers towards Digitization) conference, which was organized on Wednesday, March 1, by B4I in partnership with the Czech Management Association.
Scientists from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in collaboration with BENEŠ a LÁT a.s. and CARDAM s.r.o. managed to develop a cooling system for complex forms manufactured by means of 3D printing. The project results utilize the latest findings in the area of coating technologies and significant progress of additive manufacturing.
The NCC for MATCA project (National Centre of Competence for Materials, Advanced Technologies, Coatings and their Application) enters its second, six-year period. The Technology Agency of the Czech Republic has selected it as one of 18 projects.
Five years ago the researcher Barbora Špačková moved to Sweden to take up a postdoc position at the Chalmers University of Technology where she developed a unique imaging method called nanofluidic scattering microscopy using which she can see, as she puts it, “things that nobody else has ever seen before”.
Scientists from the Laboratory of Biophysics contributed to the field of DNA nanotechnology with a recent systematic analysis. The authors, led by Oleg Lunov, have summarized the current state of knowledge about the interactions of DNA nanostructures (DN) with cells and identified the key challenges.
A device that uses a single blood drop to determine whether a patient has a melanoma, and, possibly, at what stage, is being developed by an international research team that includes researchers from the Institute of Physics of the Czech Academy of Sciences led by the researcher Jakub Dostálek. As part of the VerSiLiB project, they are building a device capable of capturing and detecting even very small amounts of molecules produced by tumour cells, which can be used as biomarkers.
He likes to play with light, to put it bluntly. Jakub Dostálek, who is the latest acquisition of the Optics Division, focuses on investigating material properties and how they affect light. Or the other way round – how light affects material properties and the ways to control such properties using light. Having worked for over ten years abroad, he is now taking his first steps to return to Czechia.
“We had the opportunity to invest time into interdisciplinary research, knowing that if everything works according to plan, we‘ll rank among the best. But an overarching element of our research remains to be optics – we’ve never run away from it,” says Alexandr Dejneka, the Optics Division Head, in an interview.
A combination of theoretical study, purposeful work, and valuable practical experience – this is what the Radius Development Centre provides to university students. The centre was conceived by three Institutes of the Academy of Sciences together with two universities – Palacký University in Olomouc and University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice.
The biochip is as fast as an antigen test and at the time as reliable as the PCR method. A team of Czech scientists led by Hana Lísalová has achieved the most crucial milestone in the development of a unique system for the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 virus causing COVID-19. Biosensor research, which the system is based on, confirmed their sensitivity and reliability and opened new options for further development in this area.
