<p><strong>Associate Professor <a href="https://lcms.cz/articles?search=Pavel+Po%C5%99%C3%ADzka"><strong>Pavel Pořízka</strong></a> is a member of Prof. Kaiser&#39;s research group, <em>Advanced Instrumentation and Methods for Materials Characterization</em>, at CEITEC BUT. Although the researchers mostly focus on the development of instrumentation and methodology in collaboration with industry, they have recently started to explore applications in biology thanks to a junior grant. In a GAČR-funded project entitled <em>Processes of laser ablation of soft tissues and subsequent development of laser-excited plasmas</em>, Pořízka and his team focused on the analysis of soft tissues using LIBS (Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy).</strong></p>
<h3><strong>The completed project was rated as excellent; it was also the first grant you led. Can you tell us more about it?</strong></h3>
<p>That was under a programme that I am happy to talk about and of which I was a successful applicant. It&#39;s a good thing that grant agencies provide individual calls for young scientists at the beginning of their careers, give them the opportunity to participate in a grant competition and gain valuable experience in managing larger projects. The grant we are talking about was announced by the Czech Science Foundation (Grantová agentura České republiky, GAČR) in the GAČR JUNIOR call (which gradually transformed into the larger JUNIOR STAR call). It&#39;s basically financial support for budding scientists. One of the conditions for applying for this grant was a long-term internship abroad, so I went to the University of Florida under a Fulbright grant.</p>
<p>Thanks to the junior grant, I had the opportunity to build my own team focusing only on the analysis of biological samples and to be its principal investigator. Until then, I was mainly a co-investigator on grants within our research group. As was the case of the previous grant awarded to my colleague Pavlina Modlitbová, which was again a grant for young researchers, TAČR – ZÉTA programme. This grant focused mainly on applied research, but it was in the field of biology, too.</p>
<h3><strong>What do you see as the biggest advantage of these programmes that support scientists at the beginning of their careers?</strong></h3>
<p>They literally get careers off the ground. Usually, if you haven&#39;t had a grant and you haven&#39;t been a principal investigator, you have little chance of getting a grant, which creates a kind of vicious circle. These programmes are supposed to disrupt that established system, and I&#39;m glad it&#39;s working that way. If there is even more intensive funding for grants for early-career scientists and, in particular, female scientists, that will only be a good thing. Thanks to this programme, we have received follow-up grants that have helped us to enter other scientific fields. It really is a great helping hand at the beginning of a career.</p>
<h3><strong>How does the process of selecting winning projects work?</strong></h3>
<p>Practically, it&#39;s a standardized procedure. The project is evaluated by a GAČR panel, where the committee and the opponents give their opinions on it. It is not simply included in the regular GAČR cycle with standard projects; it is judged outside of it. As a result, the project is evaluated independently of other project applications submitted by experienced scientists with a &quot;better&quot; CV. The h-index has long been crucial from the GAČR&#39;s point of view but this is also changing. At the beginning of one&#39;s career, one has a less impressive CV, and when one has to compete with someone who has a successful 20-year-long scientific career and has already received several research grants in the past, it is hard to get ahead.</p>
<h3><strong>Why did you take an interest in biological applications?</strong></h3>
<p>After returning from my internship abroad as part of my PhD studies at BUT, in our research group, we started to develop not only the development of instrumentation, which was historically strong here, but also the possible applications. This direction was interesting for several reasons. The most important factor was that it was a topic that I was personally interested in, especially in terms of the difficulty of analysing the sample itself, interpreting the data, and optimizing the parameters of the measurement setup. It was also something that pushed our collaboration towards developmental biology and, in time, perhaps clinical research. Thanks to this, we are collaborating with the Academy of Sciences and clinical departments at the University Hospitals in Hradec Králové and Ostrava. Last but not least, we have moved on to another grant and it has also brought us new contacts abroad.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Pavel_Porizka_Diky_juniorskemu_grantu_jsme_ziskali_nove_projekty_i_zahranicni_spolupraci_Desticky_fe04570b77/CEITEC-Pavel-Porizka-Diky-juniorskemu-grantu-jsme-ziskali-nove-projekty-i-zahranicni-spolupraci-Desticky.jpg" alt="CEITEC: Pavel Pořízka: We have obtained new projects and foreign collaboration thanks to a junior grant"/></p>
<h3><strong>Can you highlight any foreign cooperation?</strong></h3>
<p>The strongest foreign cooperation in the field of biology is with the research group of Professor Andreas Limbeck from the Technical University of Vienna and Associate Professor Gabriela Kalčíková from the University of Ljubljana. We have a joint grant with both on the detection of microplastics in soft tissues and their influence and toxicity in these tissues. To sum it all up, this was a strategic and key decision for us – we have expanded our existing applications to include biology, and this has taken us further. We&#39;ve created a smaller team of about five or six students and two postdocs that are just focused on biological applications, whether we&#39;re talking about plant analysis, hard tissue (teeth and bones), or soft tissue (organs).</p>
<h3><strong>What is the potential of LIBS in the study of tumour tissues?</strong></h3>
<p>LIBS is a method of analytical chemistry designed for elemental analysis that is applied in a wide range of fields, including biology, but also, for example, geology. The method allows the distribution of elements on the surface of a prepared sample to be measured. In clinical research, we are investigating whether the LIBS method can be used to diagnose and support pathology and standard procedures currently used to refine the estimation of the extent of cancer in human skin. This is our main hypothesis. If we are able to refine the estimation of the area of diseased tissue, this could be used for diagnostic purposes during surgical procedures in the future. However, this remains a vision for now.</p>
<h3><strong>How far are you?</strong></h3>
<p>At the moment, we have already obtained dozens of samples from the hospital, and we have permission from the ethics committee to study them. The analysis of these samples is ongoing and we are preparing several scientific articles to present our research achievements. We also participate in international conferences where we receive positive feedback. This support convinces us that our work is worthwhile and that we should continue. We are focusing on combining different approaches from the perspective of correlative microscopy, which means combining classical microscopy and spectroscopy to use different techniques to obtain the most comprehensive information about the samples, i.e. how the chemical and structural composition changes depending on the disease being studied.</p>
<h3><strong>Where would you like to take the research in the near future?</strong></h3>
<p>We are moving forward and would like to submit another grant in the framework of Czech-Austrian cooperation in collaboration with the Technical University of Vienna. This will be a follow-up grant focusing on human tissue analysis and the study of skin cancer. But again, I have to stress that the beginning of this journey was the junior grant mentioned above which opened the door for us both in soft tissue analysis and international cooperation. Without this support, we would not have been able to successfully continue to discover new applications and expand the use of our method.</p>
<h3><strong>So you have analysed mouse and pig tissues first?</strong></h3>
<p>Clinical samples are very valuable to us, so we have model tissues – organs from laboratory mice – that we use to simulate human tissue. We don&#39;t measure clinical samples straight away, we first have to check if the system itself is working at maximum performance. In fact, when we analyse samples with LIBS, we use a powerful laser pulse to slightly heat and vaporise the material, creating the necessary analytical glowing plasma, thus practically destroying the sample. So the thin histological sections we get from the hospital are gone after the measurements.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Pavel_Porizka_Diky_juniorskemu_grantu_jsme_ziskali_nove_projekty_i_zahranicni_spolupraci_lab_2289946f37/CEITEC-Pavel-Porizka-Diky-juniorskemu-grantu-jsme-ziskali-nove-projekty-i-zahranicni-spolupraci-lab.jpg" alt="CEITEC: Pavel Pořízka: We have obtained new projects and foreign collaboration thanks to a junior grant"/></p>
<h3><strong>Can we say that you are pioneers in measuring tumour tissue with LIBS?</strong></h3>
<p>I wouldn&#39;t say that at all. There are a few labs in the global community working on similar topics. We are slightly inspired by the success of our French colleagues at the University of Lyon. The LIBS method is not as established as competing methods. This is what makes the whole research more interesting, as we have to discover a lot of things ourselves. We are trying to move it closer to standard, routine use. So I wouldn&#39;t say pioneers, but I think we are making a significant contribution to making it more widely adopted and more competitive with other techniques.</p>
<h3><strong>Does the startup you founded in 2019, Lightigo, help you do that?</strong></h3>
<p>Extremely. It helps us develop systems that are not commercially available in the world, which was one of the most significant limitations of the whole method. This is something where we see ourselves quite at the forefront – on the one hand, we are developing the actual method of how to measure samples, and on the other hand, we are also able to develop systems in broad collaboration with our startup. This connection gives us the unique ability to adapt the system according to how it should measure, what performance it should have, which also makes it possible for us to move forward faster. This way, we are not dependent on any third-party instrumentation. However, it&#39;s more challenging in that we need broader funding.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Pavel_Porizka_Diky_juniorskemu_grantu_jsme_ziskali_nove_projekty_i_zahranicni_spolupraci_2f1c1f9224/CEITEC-Pavel-Porizka-Diky-juniorskemu-grantu-jsme-ziskali-nove-projekty-i-zahranicni-spolupraci.jpg" alt="CEITEC: Pavel Pořízka: We have obtained new projects and foreign collaboration thanks to a junior grant"/></p>
<h3><strong>How demanding, financially speaking, is LIBS compared to competing methods?</strong></h3>
<p>The instrumentation and the low cost of the method are some of its biggest advantages. Our system is significantly cheaper than competing techniques, such as LA-ICP-MS, but lacks the sensitivity that seems to be essential in some applications. It is sufficient In applications such as the detection of heavy metals in teeth and bone. Although the LIBS method cannot be adopted in all applications, it can be used in many cases and achieve both financial and time savings. The limitations of the method were one of the aspects we addressed in the JUNIOR grant.</p>
<h3><strong>Are there any applications where you have already got into “hot water”?</strong></h3>
<p>There are some but that makes it all the more interesting to try. For example, we have not yet been able to detect iodine, which is used to stain the sample before computed tomography, i.e. before structural analysis. But we don&#39;t see it as a failure. It shouldn&#39;t sound like that, because if we can&#39;t do something now, it doesn&#39;t mean that we won’t be able to do it in the future with further development of instrumentation and measurement methodology.</p>
<h3><strong>What is the priority project now?</strong></h3>
<p>Right now, the three most important projects for us are the three GAČR projects and other TAČR projects in the TREND and NCK programmes. So we have a number of ongoing projects that involve the development of instrumentation and application in industry. However, we are able to manage such a broad scope because we have a group of talented students in our lab who help us significantly in moving forward quickly. They work on sub-topics and actively contribute to the development of our method during their studies.</p>
<p>Two GAČR projects are focused directly on biology, meaning we are able to follow our strategy. In the first project, we are starting our third year of work, and it concerns the detection of nanoparticles as indirect biomarkers of human tissue. With this method, we can specifically label the defined tissue, for example, breast cancer. Another priority for us is the detection of microplastics in soft tissues, where we combine LIBS, LA-ICP-MS and Raman spectroscopy for chemical analysis. We complement these spectroscopic and spectrometric methods with structural analysis by computed tomography from the laboratory of Assoc. Tomáš Zikmund, who is also part of Prof. Kaiser&#39;s research group. Our aim is to find out how the presence of microplastics affects the surrounding soft tissue and whether their presence can have any negative (toxic) effects. Trace elements are commonly found in plastics, including some toxic ones such as lead and cadmium. These substances can diffuse into the surrounding tissue and possibly affect it.</p>


Pavel Pořízka: We have obtained new projects and foreign collaboration thanks to a junior grant

<p><strong>Vinicius Santana, a Brazilian scientist exploring the area right between physics and chemistry, specifically the application of electron spin resonance (ESR), has been part of the Magneto-Optical and THz Spectroscopy group at <a href="https://lcms.cz/companies/36">CEITEC</a> BUT led by Petr Neugebauer since 2018. The talented young scientist explains how he got into this highly interdisciplinary research and speaks about his plans now that he has been awarded the prestigious JUNIOR STAR 2024 grant by the Grant Agency of the Czech Republic (GAČR).</strong></p>
<h3><strong>How long have you been in Brno and how did you get here?</strong></h3>
<p>I arrived in Brno in January 2018 to join Petr Neugebauer’s group. He had just gotten his ERC Starting Grant to develop a high-frequency high-field electron spin resonance (HF-ESR) spectrometer, the only of its kind in the Czech Republic and, to some extent, with worldwide unique capabilities of fast frequency sweeps for studying spin dynamics. It was an incredible journey where I participated in the construction of the new spectrometer from scratch. Before coming, in September 2017, I submitted a project to the Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MCSA) for the mobility of international researchers. The project was not selected, although it was considered excellent. Therefore, it was funded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports via the European Social Fund. Since then, I have dedicated my time to the application of ESR to solve problems in different scientific fields with a focus on molecular magnetism.</p>
<h3><strong>Could you describe your current research projects?</strong></h3>
<p>I collaborate with different groups and projects to use ESR for tracking radicals in chemical reactions and in the study of charge transfer in catalytical processes. This technique is sometimes the only resource to explain mechanisms that lead to the optimization of systems with relevance in everyday life, such as new drugs, water treatment, and novel technological materials. I also participate in collaborations where I help to characterize defects and dopants in oxides with different purposes, such as dyes, piezoelectrics and catalysts. I am currently a team member in a GAČR EXPRO project aimed at enhancing the NMR techniques using ESR, with an impact on medical diagnostics, and in another GAČR Standard aimed at preparing, characterizing, and depositing new single-molecule magnets (SMMs) on surfaces. These compounds are promising candidates to substitute large magnetic domains in storage devices with molecular units capable of storing one bit of information, drastically improving the storage density and efficiency. I have a bachelor, master and PhD in Physics. However, I have always worked at the intersection of physics and chemistry, characterizing new materials and particularly interested in the signatures of magnetic phenomena in electron spin resonance (ESR) spectra. My focus is on molecular crystals, particularly those where arrays of spins in molecules give rise to different quantum phases that can be controlled externally by the application of a magnetic field.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_VUT_Vaclav_Konicek_Vedu_delaji_lide_a_lidi_pohani_vasen_Vasen_sama_ale_pro_dobrou_vedu_nestaci_rika_Vinicius_Santana_1_a95bcef368.jpg" alt="CEITEC/BUT/Václav Koníček: Science is made by people and people are driven by passion. However, passion alone is not enough, says Vinicius Santana"/></p>
<h3><strong>You have been awarded the JUNIOR STAR 2024 grant for one of your projects. What does that mean to you and your project?</strong></h3>
<p>It is a great opportunity to push forward my career from a junior postdoc researcher to a junior group leader. I really enjoy the laboratory work and data analysis and I intend to keep performing these tasks. But it is great to be able to coordinate a team that will work with me towards the aim of the project, which is related to the production and characterization of suitable molecular crystals with weakly coupled spins to demonstrate/reveal exotic phenomena, quantum entanglement and phase transitions. I am proposing to modulate the interaction between molecules in a crystal by varying the magnitude of the interaction among them, creating different networks of entangled molecules. This will be done by pushing forward methodologies in ESR in a wide range of frequencies and at high magnetic fields. What motivates me in my work, which is actually what got me to come to this field in the first place, is to explain unexpected features in the classical ESR spectra of magnetic materials. The outputs can also be helpful to people working in the field of molecular magnetism, providing new methodologies in ESR to explain the behaviour and the observed data in novel compounds. We will also develop new sample holders, so the project is a synergic interaction between engineering, physics, and chemistry. One of the goals of the project is to show that there are quantum phases in these molecular crystals that can be tuned by the orientation of an external magnetic field and to study the spin dynamics in these phases to demonstrate that they have an enhanced coherence time, with a potential application of these systems as quantum bits.</p>
<h3><strong>Could you describe the potential practical applications of your research?</strong></h3>
<p>The long-term goal and my vision with this project are to produce and characterize new molecules that can have a potential application as quantum bits (qubits), which are the basic units of a quantum computer. This technology will transform various aspects of society by enabling faster and more efficient computation, secure communication, and precise sensing. Materials for that purpose must have an enhanced coherence time, which is the time it can hold a given quantum state, enabling logical operations. We will design and characterize many new compounds that could eventually reach benchmark results.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_VUT_Vaclav_Konicek_Vedu_delaji_lide_a_lidi_pohani_vasen_Vasen_sama_ale_pro_dobrou_vedu_nestaci_rika_Vinicius_Santana_2_27245d9024.jpg" alt="CEITEC/BUT/Václav Koníček: Science is made by people and people are driven by passion. However, passion alone is not enough, says Vinicius Santana"/></p>
<h3><strong>Last but not least, what do you think is most important in a researcher’s work?</strong></h3>
<p>It is important to remember that science is made by people, and we are all driven by passion. However, passion alone is not enough to attract good people to the project. Having a work-life balance and enough time to think deeply about the problems we face in research is just as important as working hard. The conditions around the work are extremely relevant when it comes to our well-being as well as our performance. <a href="https://lcms.cz/companies/36"><strong>CEITEC</strong></a>, for example, provides an excellent environment, it has an excellent infrastructure so that we can focus mostly on our research work, and this is really great. I see a trend that is now getting a lot of attention about the mental health of postdocs around the globe, to improve working conditions, salaries and so on. The Nature group has published a series of articles on that (<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03298-7">Postdocs are pushing back against low pay and conditions - more institutions must take heed</a>, <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-023-03296-9">Falling behind: postdocs in their thirties tire of putting life on hold</a>). And I believe that is an important topic to discuss if we want the young new generations to feel attracted to do basic and applied research, as it is the only way to push society forward.</p>
<p>Another very important thing is cooperation. Excellent work can only be achieved by means of collaboration. Big and complex problems usually require various expertise that is often spread among different groups, which can be in different cities or countries. High-level publications are usually the output of these interactions. I value this a lot and that is why, in my project, I have engaged many collaborators from different backgrounds to help guarantee the success of my team’s outputs.</p>


Science is made by people and people are driven by passion. However, passion alone is not enough, says Vinicius Santana

<p><strong>In the vast universe of scientific research, there is an area with such a small scale that it escapes observation by the human eye. It is these tiny particles and structures that we can explore with electron microscopy, a field that has revolutionised our understanding of the world. With its unrivalled ability to visualise structures at nanometre scales, electron microscopy has broken new ground in disciplines ranging from biology to materials science. We use the full spectrum of applications here at <a href="https://icpms.labrulez.com/companies/36">CEITEC</a>, where our research simply cannot be done without electron microscopes. Since Brno is the imaginary queen of electron microscopy, we have the opportunity to participate directly in the development of this technology and to be part of the innovation ecosystem, the fruits of which can be observed during events such as the Electron Microscopy Days.</strong></p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Po_stopach_neviditelneho_aneb_Elektronova_mikroskopie_v_Brne_1_7926dd92b9.jpeg" alt="CEITEC: In the Footsteps of the Invisible or Electron Microscopy in Brno"/></p>
<h3><strong>Electron Microscopy Days</strong></h3>
<p>In March, CEITEC traditionally joined the <strong>Electron Microscopy Days</strong>. Both our campuses in the week of 18-23 March 2024 came alive in the spirit of this popularization event organised by Brno Observatory and Planetarium, which involves a number of partners spread throughout Brno. Every year, universities, scientific and popularization centres and manufacturing companies open their doors to the general public, especially children, and prepare rich programmes for them: from lectures to excursions to laboratories and production facilities to scientific games and experiments. The theme chosen for this year was “Villains of the Microworld”. Each institution handled the theme differently, so the main villain was the mite, the symbol of this year’s Electron Microscopy Days, but also viruses at <strong>CEITEC MUNI</strong> or electrons at <strong>CEITEC BUT</strong>.  Hundreds of people visited the various lectures, exhibitions and experiments at CEITEC this year – from schoolchildren on field trips to families with children during the weekend programme.</p>
<h3><strong>The birth of electron microscopy</strong></h3>
<p>Electron Microscopy Days, as the name suggests, give a glimpse under the hood of a field that is one of the cornerstones of scientific research today. The origins of this field date back to the first half of the 20th century. One of the oldest sciences, which still plays a significant role to this day – optics – was the most important for its development. At that time, it was no longer just about simple optics, the science of the propagation of light, but also about the theory of electromagnetism, in which the study of light also falls.</p>
<p>Determining the exact <strong>date of the birth of electron microscopy or the creator of the first electron microscope</strong> can be problematic, but what we do know is that as early as *<em>1931 Max Knoll</em> and <strong>Ernst Ruska</strong> in Berlin generated the first transmission electron microscope images. At that time, Soviet physicists were developing electron microscopes, too. In the following decades, electron microscopes spread all over the world and became a mainstay of scientific research in many different disciplines.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Jan_Michalicka_Po_stopach_neviditelneho_aneb_Elektronova_mikroskopie_v_Brne_56430c5901.jpg" alt="CEITEC/Jan Michalička: In the Footsteps of the Invisible or Electron Microscopy in Brno"/></p>
<h3><strong>Principles of electron microscopy</strong></h3>
<p>Unlike conventional light microscopes, which use visible light to illuminate samples, electron microscopes use a beam of directed electrons. These electrons exhibit wave properties and have much shorter wavelengths than photons, allowing for much higher image resolution. The best electron microscopes, such as our Titans, can also image single atoms.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Po_stopach_neviditelneho_aneb_Elektronova_mikroskopie_v_Brne_4_ed8a80087c.jpeg" alt="CEITEC: In the Footsteps of the Invisible or Electron Microscopy in Brno"/></p>
<p>Petr Lepcio from CEITEC BUT explains the physical principles of electron microscope imaging as follows: <em>“Electrons are first extracted from the cathode, accelerated by a strong electric field and finally directed by an electromagnetic lens array onto the sample. These so-called primary electrons can cause a variety of phenomena, e.g. they can bounce back, knock another electron out of the sample structure or cause X-rays to be emitted. The individual signals are then picked up by the detectors and processed by the computer into a black-and-white image of the sample. The interaction of the electrons with the material can provide additional information about the composition of the material or the orientation of the crystalline domains.”</em>  However, this process requires very specific conditions, Lepcio adds: <em>“The inside of the microscope is pumped into a deep vacuum so that no gas molecules can interact with the flying electrons and affect their trajectory. At the same time, any vibrations that could blur the image must be carefully avoided and external electromagnetic fields, such as those from a transformer station at a nearby tram depot, must be shielded.”</em> Shielding from the slightest vibrations is quite crucial for high-precision microscopes: <em>“For microscopes like the Titan, this even requires special structural modifications, placing the microscope on a separate concrete block that is not connected to the building’s foundation so that vibrations from the floor cannot be transmitted, and installing special equipment to compensate for external electromagnetic smog.”</em></p>
<h3><strong>Applications across various fields</strong></h3>
<p><strong>The versatile applications of electron microscopy</strong> span a variety of scientific fields and offer invaluable insights into biological, material, and environmental sciences. In biology, they enable visualization of cell organelles, protein complexes and viruses, helping us to understand fundamental biological processes and disease mechanisms. Researchers can explore tissues’ complex architecture and unlock life’s secrets at the molecular level.</p>
<p>In materials science, electron microscopy plays a crucial role in characterizing the relationships between the structure and properties of materials such as metals, semiconductors and polymers. By imaging the arrangement of atoms and defects, scientists can design new materials with tailored properties for applications ranging from electronics to renewable energy.</p>
<p>In addition, electron microscopy contributes to environmental research and protection by analysing pollutants, nanoparticles and microorganisms in environmental samples. Understanding the interactions between pollutants and ecosystems helps in designing strategies for environmental remediation and sustainability.</p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Po_stopach_neviditelneho_aneb_Elektronova_mikroskopie_v_Brne_2_e8c4cee592.jpeg" alt="CEITEC: In the Footsteps of the Invisible or Electron Microscopy in Brno"/></p>
<h3><strong>Microscopes at CEITEC</strong></h3>
<p>The widespread use of electron microscopes means that these instruments are essential in more or less any research and investigation we carry out at CEITEC. That is why we also have a variety of them at CEITEC, with different specifications and different resolutions – depending on what they are used for.</p>
<p><em>“The shared laboratory of cryo-electron microscopy at <strong>CEITEC MUNI</strong> uses four transmission electron microscopes, three of which have an accelerating voltage of 200 keV,”</em> says Karel Škubník, deputy head of the laboratory. “However, the flagship of the laboratory is the Titan Krios microscope, which has an accelerating voltage of 300 keV.” At CEITEC MUNI, microscopes are used to study the structures of biological samples, such as proteins or ribosomes, i.e. cellular formations that produce proteins. Škubník also says that researchers are also looking at <em>“viruses that infect humans or threaten entire populations. In addition, we also have three scanning electron microscopes, which are used to examine the surfaces of biological samples in particular, for instance in plants, but we have also, for example, measured the surface of a meteorite.”</em></p>
<p><img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/CEITEC_Po_stopach_neviditelneho_aneb_Elektronova_mikroskopie_v_Brne_5_b0a9ac1a28.jpeg" alt="CEITEC: In the Footsteps of the Invisible or Electron Microscopy in Brno"/></p>
<p>At <strong>CEITEC BUT</strong> we have seven electron microscopes, one of which is also Titan. <em>“As these are some of the most popular instruments in our shared <strong>CEITEC Nano laboratories</strong>, which are regularly used by over 100 users, the range of applications is really wide,&quot;</em> Lepcio explains. <em>&quot;The most common applications are research on advanced materials, nanoparticles, nanofibres, and other nanomaterials, as well as polymers, metals, ceramics, semiconductors, and natural materials. Microscopes serve a variety of purposes, from studying their structure, size, topography and morphology, to analyzing defects and fracture surfaces, to quality control of fabricated micro- and nanostructures.”</em> Even at CEITEC BUT, we occasionally get our hands on more exotic samples, such as historical artefacts.</p>
<h3><strong>Electron microscopy in Brno</strong></h3>
<p>Electron microscopy is a crucial field for us at CEITEC for another reason. CEITEC is proud to be part of the Brno innovation ecosystem #brnoregion, where electron microscopy plays a vital role. With giants such as <strong>ThermoFisher Scientific</strong>, <strong>Tescan</strong> and <strong>Delong Instruments</strong>, Brno is simply the centre of electron microscopy. Every third electron microscope in the world is manufactured here!</p>
<p>The manufacturing companies, together with research and scientific centres such as CEITEC (and other faculties at both Masaryk University and Brno University of Technology), and educational institutions such as VIDA!, form a perfectly complementary community in which researchers and former students participate in the development of microscopes, Brno companies manufacture and supply them, and here in research centres, we work with them and discover new applications. This fruitful synergy in Brno&#39;s microscopy ecosystem manifests, for example, during the Electron Microscopy Days or in the <strong>newly established Master&#39;s Programme in Microscopy</strong>, which the Faculty of Science at MUNI opens this year.</p>
<p><em>“Brno is a city of science, research and innovation. It is also a city of cooperation. It is thanks to the cooperation of companies in the field of electron microscopy, the academic sector, scientific-popularization institutions, and the public sphere that we have been hosting an absolutely unique event for several years. Its contribution is enormous – it popularizes science, promotes interest in studying technical and natural science disciplines, and represents a very promising field as well as the technological potential of our city,”</em> concludes Brno City Mayor Markéta Vaňková.</p>


In the Footsteps of the Invisible or Electron Microscopy in Brno

<p><strong>One of the <a href="https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/actions/postdoctoral-fellowships"><strong>Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-FP)</strong></a> schemes that supports the training of early career scientists with an emphasis on comprehensive professional and career development helped <a href="https://www.ceitec.eu/william-shakespeare-morton-ph-d/u94475"><strong>William S. Morton</strong></a> from <a href="https://vacha.ceitec.cz"><strong>Robert Vácha’s research group</strong></a> to fund his research at <a href="https://lcms.labrulez.com/companies/36"><strong>CEITEC</strong></a> Masaryk University. The new call for MSCA-FP applications opens on April 10, 2024, so we wanted to learn first-hand from both William and Robert about pros and cons of this funding and find out more about this young American scientist’s motivations to do science in Brno, as William travelled across half of Europe from his last posting, and money did not play a major role.</strong></p>
<h5><strong>William, when we met you told me you were doing “fake biology” and “fake physics”. Can you explain what you mean by “fake”?</strong></h5>
<p>If we wanted to see what happens when we drop a plate of spaghetti on the floor, we could use pasta. Instead, we could use pieces of string that are the same size, or maybe cut up elastic bands. These wouldn’t be the same as using pasta, but it would be an approximation. We could then control the conditions by tuning the exact length or material. My job is similar. Scientists at CEITEC perform a lot of cutting-edge research on proteins, and I make representations to isolate a specific property. Then we figure out if theories about our fake proteins are comparable to the real thing.</p>
<h5><strong>How did your journey to Brno and CEITEC begin?</strong></h5>
<p>I came here for an internship in 2022, during peak COVID times. My supervisor had worked with Robert when they were both at Cambridge and thought he would be the expert to help me with some computer simulations. Later, Robert mentioned the possibility of me coming to CEITEC for a postdoc. I was halfway through writing up my thesis when we called for the interview. We talked for a while and eventually I asked when he would like me to start this project. We were chatting on Thursday, and he said, ‘Monday would be great’. I thought he was kidding; he wasn&#39;t.</p>
<p> <strong>Robert Vácha:</strong> Recommendations within the scientific community are extremely important. I always try to find new members of my group through someone I can rely on to recommend a good candidate. At that time, William was working with Stefano Angioletti-Uberti, who was doing simulations with polymers and nanoparticles. William had become interested in nanoparticles in contact with membranes and we have a lot of experience with that. Stefano put us in touch so that William could learn how to simulate such systems and so he came to us for an internship. A year later, we were starting a project in which the experiments were already done but the simulations with a model at the level William was working on were missing. Therefore, he was an ideal candidate and it was also an opportunity for him to get involved in an already running project. But we needed to get the simulations done as soon as possible, so I was in a hurry for his arrival.</p>
<h5><strong>What was the one thing that made you decide to come to Brno?</strong></h5>
<p>There were multiple aspects: The first one was being able to work continuously with Robert and his group, a collection of fantastic scientists. I already knew that I liked the culture and environment around Brno, everything here is very accessible, and there’s plenty of outdoor activities. The last aspect was that moving here terrified me. To put myself in the middle of a whole bunch of real biologists who are all speaking Czech? But eventually I thought, ‘cool, I think I can do this’.</p>
<h5><strong>At what point did the MSCA funding come into play?</strong></h5>
<p>It will likely come in May, I&#39;ve not signed the contract yet, the European Union still has it. But to be precise, my research will be funded by European Research Agency (ERA) as part of the Horizon Wider Area Talents program. The MSCA-PF reviewers give your grant a score from 0–100. If your score is above the cutoff for the category you’ve applied to, you earn the MSCA. This year for life sciences, the cutoff was 94.4%. If you receive above 90% on an application for the Czech Republic (the exact value varies in each area), then your grant will be funded by the ERA as part of the Horizon Wider Area Talents program. And that was my case.</p>
<h5><strong>How did you learn about the MSCA grant?</strong></h5>
<p>As soon as Robert hired me, he mentioned this. He had so many ideas of things that I could do. He pushes his group to do more for ourselves, and for CEITEC – like developing and teaching courses. It’s a great quality in a supervisor because it&#39;s hard to remember to care about all of those things at the same time, so it’s good to be reminded.</p>
<p><strong>Robert Vácha:</strong> There were several reasons why I recommended the MSCA-FP grant to William. First, the MSCA-FP grant is a &quot;brand&quot;, so in addition to getting funding for his own research, the grant is a visible item on any scientist&#39;s CV, and second, it gives a young scientist a taste of what grant writing is like (and writing a first grant is always the most difficult). William and I talked about the time it would cost him, but I knew it would be time well invested because I was convinced that William had a very good chance of getting the funding. In addition to his talent and knowledge, I knew he would be a great fit for the group on a personal level. That&#39;s why I&#39;m thrilled that he has received the grant and will be able to work with us here. After all, my goal is not only to have a group of great scientists, but to make a great team that will be a pleasure to work with.</p>
<h5><strong>Was it difficult to administer the application?</strong></h5>
<p>Actually, I wasn&#39;t going to apply for the grant, originally. I didn&#39;t have enough time because I started this position while finishing my PhD. I also didn&#39;t know if I would still want to be here after a year. Then a week before the deadline, I was applying for a different grant, and thought I was already writing one anyways – so I wrote it up quickly and e-mailed the grant office. Thankfully the grant office wasn’t too mad at me, but I know it put them under extra pressure. But the whole team there is amazing, and I’m still thanking them for helping me out.</p>
<h5><strong>What will be covered by the funding besides your relocation?</strong></h5>
<p>It covers my salary, which is probably the most important part for researchers considering this grant. But the great thing is you get a pool of resource money for research. With computer simulations, it can be easy to build something bespoke: custom. When it comes time to purchase something, say a peptide, that could mean that it is expensive. Having your own resources allows you to make these purchases, without the fear that your experiment may take away funds from someone else&#39;s.</p>
<p>Along the way, we can also help support master students who work for us by giving them some stipend. It&#39;s something that we can do to help the community at CEITEC – bring in master students to start learning these skills.</p>
<h5><strong>What are the requirements you must fulfill for the funding?</strong></h5>
<p>To meet the requirements, I must make good on everything I promised in my application. Writing the grant feels like a fever dream, so I had to look up what I wrote once I got the news. Apparently, I promised to publish three papers but also share my research at various levels throughout the scientific and local community. Reaching out to the local community is much harder but so much more worth it, and CEITEC offers a lot of opportunities for that. I think that is going to be the goal that I care about the most. I&#39;m really excited about the Sip of Science events in TED-talk style here at CEITEC MUNI. Me and my other colleagues were already talking about how to put our research into simple terms because that is the key to a good scientific speaker. And that, I think, is often unfortunately the last thing on anyone&#39;s priority list.</p>
<p>I also leaned into one of the stated goals for the horizon project, which is translation to industry. Opening this type of communication can be difficult in practice but is also part of my engineering background, so it doesn’t feel uncomfortable. I’m excited to start a project from scratch with the intention of making it translatable to an industrial field. Usually that’s an afterthought. I think this helped to set my application apart from the others.</p>
<h5><strong>Is being “different” an advantage for getting a grant?</strong></h5>
<p>In every example I saw, the focus is always on the scientific part, which intuitively makes sense. But there are other questions to consider: Is the research impacted by any gender issues? Do underrepresented populations have any place in your research? These aspects tend to get marginalized. I tried to produce arguments for how my research could impact and recognize different people. This is the hardest part to write because you want to be genuine but not pandering. I sent this part to most of my friends, academics or not, just to get as much feedback as possible. Getting their feedback won’t hurt, and even if there’s nothing you can change, you can at least be aware.</p>


Scientists should ask themself what impact science has on different people, says applicant for prestigious MSCA-FP funding

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Since its establishment in 2011, CEITEC has quickly developed into a cutting-edge infrastructure for research which performs highly alongside the best institutes in Europe. Among the main priorities of CEITEC are the promotion of a motivating and dynamic international scientific environment, the provision of state-of-the-art research infrastructure, and the policy of open communication and equal opportunities.

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