INTERVIEW: Our laboratory was featured in the Cell Scientist to Watch interview series

We are delighted to bring the interview with Dr. Hana Polasek-Sedlackova as a part of Cell Scientist to Watch interview series. Hana talks about her career path, laboratory and her life outside of the lab. Read the interview here. We sincerely thank to Sara Morais da Silva and Journal of Cell Science for this wonderful opportunity🙏

👉 Link to full series can be found here.

April 2025                                                             Currrent lab members with 3D printed equipment.

NEW PREPRINT: Quantitative AI-based DNA fiber workflow to study replication stress

📢 For all DNA fiber enthusiasts! 🟥🟩 We are thrilled to announce the release of our long-awaited AI-based workflow for the automated and quantitative analysis of DNA fibers. It's an exciting step forward—check it out on bioRxiv! We thank Pavel Moudry and Vincenzo Costanzo labs, and Evident Life Science company, for fantastic collaboration! Get in touch if you are interested in using workflow in your lab.

Key points are summarized here:
👉 The scanR-based workflow enables automated imaging and multiparameter analysis of thousands of DNA fibers within minutes. ⏱️
👉 The analysis provides automated measurements of essential parameters, including DNA fiber frequency, length, and symmetry. 📊
👉 Unbiased galleries enable the visual inspection of individual DNA fibers through unbiased image galleries. 🧬

April 2025

COURSE INVITATION: 3D cell culture practical course

Are you interested in different methods of 3D cell culture 🧫? Our guest researcher, Klara Janjic, is going to repeat a successful hands-on course again in the Spring semester! Please reach out to Klara if you are interested.

March 2025

MEET RESEARCHERS: International Day of Women & Girls in Science

On February 11, 2025, we celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. To mark this special occasion, we are pleased to introduce two exceptional female scientists from our laboratory: Simran Negi and Jana Krejci. 

Curious about their journeys before joining us? Want to know what exciting projects they’re working on now? Plus, what do they love to do when they’re not in the lab?

Check out our short interviews with Simran here and with Jana here!

February 2025

NEW PAPER: RECQ4-MUS81 interaction contributes to telomere maintenance with implications to Rothmund-Thomson syndrome

Dr. Hana Polasek-Sedlackova contributed by quantitative imaging to a study that discovered a novel protein interaction important for maintaining the length of chromosome ends. The study was published last week in the journal Nature Communications. Congratulations! Read about the story here.

February 2025

NEW FUNDING: Dr. Hana Polasek-Sedlackova receives Czechoslovak Microscopy Society stipendia

The Czechoslovak Microscopy Society supports young, talented scientists who are interested in microscopy techniques and their advancement. Dr. Hana Polasek-Sedlackova and her research group are going to study replication stress using innovative quantitative imaging techniques based on artificial intelligence. Many Congratulations!

January 2025

SHORT NEWS: Teaching & Outreach activities in 2024

Throughout 2024, our lab actively participated in a variety of teaching and outreach initiatives. From October 14th to 21st, Anoop Kumar Yadav and Paolo Fagherazzi led sessions on high-content imaging during the Autumn School of Electron Microscopy and conducted multiple hands-on workshops at our ScanR microscope. Jana Krejci took part in Researchers' Night 2024, where she engaged the public by demonstrating how to isolate the DNA carrier of genetic information from various fruits.

In November, Simran Negi and Hana Polasek-Sedlackova taught the Analytical Cytometry courses (Bi9393 & Bi9393en), where they introduced microscopy and image analysis to students from Masaryk University. Additionally, throughout the year, Hana delivered introductory lectures on our research within the Bi1077 and Bi1033 courses, conducted two career lectures, participated in thesis advisory committees for students at Masaryk University, the University of Zurich, and IFOM, and contributed to doctoral thesis defenses and state exams.

December 2024

NEW PREPRINT: CRL4^DCAF12 regulation of MCMBP ensures optimal licensing of DNA replication

Cellular MCM equilibrium is maintained by distinct protein pools—parental and nascent MCMs. More about MCM pools here. During MCM biogenesis, MCMBP facilitates the assembly and transport of newly synthesized MCM subcomplexes into the nucleus. In our new bioRxiv pre-print, we identified CRL4-DCAF12 as a specific regulator of MCMBP chaperone during the assembly of nascent MCM complexes. This introduces a new quality control layer in the maintenance of cellular MCM equilibrium, necessary to prevent genome instability and disease development. We thank Cermak lab from IMG in Prague for a great collaboration! 🙏 We hope you enjoy the reading and find some inspiration 🙌

 November 2024 

SHORT NEWS: IBP career day: Per Aspera Ad Astra 2024

On 10th November, our laboratory, in collaboration with other colleagues from IBP, hosted third IBP Career Day: Per Aspera Ad Astra, which was packed with inspiring talks, encouraging round-table discussions, and awesome networking! We thank to all the speakers of this year Hana Lisalova, Ales Benda, Alena Uvizl, and Matyas Fendrych, for the fantastic talks. We also thank to DIANA Biotechnologies and EMBO for their generous support 🙏! 

November 2024 

WORKSHOP INVITATION: IBP career day: Per Aspera Ad Astra 2024

Our lab is the main organizer of IBP career day: Per Aspera Ad Astra 2024. The career day is focused on future career possibilities in the academic and industrial spheres. During the event, four outstanding scientists will share stories of their scientific journeys and will lead popular round table discussions on various topics. We look forward to meeting you! More information here. Registration link here.

October 2024

NEW PREPRINT: Development of a cell-permeable Biotin-Halotag ligand to explore functional differences between protein variants across cellular generations

HaloTag technology represents a versatile tool for studying proteins. In our latest bioRxiv preprint, we developed a new cell-permeable Biotin-HaloTag ligand enabling rapid labeling of Halo-tagged proteins in live cells and their efficient separation using streptavidin pull-down. We sincerely thank Jakub Svenda and Robert Vacha laboratories from Masaryk University and CEITEC for the fantastic collaboration! We hope you enjoy the reading and find some inspiration 🙌

Key points are summarized here:

👉 Surprisingly, the current HaloTag toolbox is missing biotin-based HaloTag ligands that offer good cell permeability, rapid protein labeling, and efficient affinity capture.

👉 We show that the strategic adjustment of the linker length is an effective strategy in tailoring the properties of the Biotin-HaloTag ligands.

👉 By combining in silico design, modular synthesis, and cell biology approaches, we identify a Biotin-HaloTag ligand suitable for efficient cellular labeling and affinity pull-down of Halo-tagged proteins.

👉 We outlined how to use a new Biotin-HaloTag ligand in sequential labeling to biochemically separate distinct protein variants previously described for histones, cohesins, and MCMs and study their biological function in genome duplication and chromatin maintenance.

October 2024

SHORT NEWS: UK DNA Replication meeting & 3D cell culture practical course

From September 10th to 12th, 2024, our lab members presented their research at the UK DNA Replication Meeting 2024 in Cambridge, UK. Hana Polasek-Sedlackova was honored with an invitation to deliver a lecture titled "The MCM biogenesis pathway: unveiling the essentials before origin licensing" and also chaired the first session focused on replisome assembly and replication initiation. Anoop Kumar Yadav and Paolo Fagherazzi successfully presented their projects during the poster session and received valuable feedback for their future work. Meanwhile, Klara Janjic and Jana Krejci organized a practical course on 3D cell culture at our Brno laboratory, garnering positive reception from many participants.

September 2024

SHORT NEWS: ScanR workshop: Pushing the bounderies of high-content imaging

On August 22nd and 23rd, 2024, our laboratory, in collaboration with other colleagues, hosted an international ScanR workshop titled "Pushing the Boundaries of High-Content Imaging." The workshop program encompassed two days of engaging lectures by national and international high-content imaging experts. The program also featured hands-on sessions with microscopes and computers, as well as networking opportunities for researchers and industry professionals utilizing this technique. We would like to extend our sincere thanks to all the speakers, hands-on session leaders, sponsors and organizers for bringing this inspirational event to our institute! 🙏

August 2024

COURSE INVITATION: 3D cell culture practical course

Are you interested in learning different methods of 3D cell culture? If so, then do not miss our practical course led by Dr. Klara Janjic, a new guest researcher at our group and institute.

July 2024

INTERVIEW: Meet Dr. Klara Janjic—a guest researcher & lecturer in the Sedlackova lab 

We are thrilled to extend a warm welcome to Dr. Klara Janjic from Medical University of Vienna, who just joined our group as a guest researcher and lecturer for the next few months. Her research project in our lab will focus on exploring genome maintenance pathways in oral dysplasia-derived stromal cells. If you want to learn more about Klara's work and career, read an interview with her here.

Photo credit: Roman Fuchs, University Clinic of Dentistry Vienna

July 2024

TALK INVITATION: Exploring cell behavior in 3D microtissue models of healthy and diseased oral mucosa by Priv.-Doz. Dr. Klara Janjic

We cordially invite you to the lecture of Dr. Klara Janjic, who is currently guest researcher in our laboratory. During her talk, Klara will present her projects focused on cell dynamics in specific models of the oral mucosa.

July 2024

THESIS DEFENCE: Role of MCM10 in DNA replication and maintenance of genome integrity 

Hearty congratulations to MSc. Ayushi Tomar, who succesfully defended her master thesis with the topic 'Role of MCM10 in DNA replication and maintenance of genome integrity' and became a Master of science!

June 2024

OUTREACH ACTIVITY: A new book describing life stories of 16 leading Czech scientists

The Kellner Family Foundation and Bez Frází publishing house published a new book that shares the life stories of 16 leading Czech scientists. We are proud that one of the stories featured in the book is the journey of Dr. Hana Polasek-Sedlackova! Many congratulations! We wish the book much success and hope that many readers find in it inspiration and passion for science!

May 2024

COMMUNICATION ACTIVITY: Our research work was featured on the Evident Discovery blog

We are delighted to bring the interview with Dr. Hana Polasek-Sedlackova, who describes the role of scanR high-content imaging system in our research work. If you want to learn about our work and current imaging projects in our lab, read the interview here: https://lnkd.in/ef7zfhGB Thanks to the Czech Science Foundation Junior Star and internal IBP funds we could purchase and bring the scanR technology to our institute.

🙏 We sincerely thank, Timo Diekmann, for featuring our work at Evident Discovery blog.

May 2024

WORKSHOP INVITATION: ScanR workshop: Pushing the bounderies of high-content imaging

Our laboratory is happy to host the sencond ScanR workshop: Pushing the bounderies of high-content imaging. The workshop will offer a great lineup of speakers with the aim to build a community of leading scientists and experts in high-content imaging to discuss and share knowledge about the latest advancements. Four hands-on sessions on sample preparation, acquisition, data analysis, and presentation. Scientists and experts from various research disciplines, at all career stages, and with any level of experience in high-content imaging are welcome to join us. 

🙏 We sincerely thank Evident Life Science, SVEN BioLabs s.r.o., and EMBO for their help and support in organizing this workshop.

👉 See more information here: https://scanrbrno.ibp.cz/

April 2024

NEW LAB PAPER: Quantity and quality of minichromosome maintenance protein complexes couple replication licensing to genome integrity

DNA replication is the essential process of life. The entire process starts with replication licensing, during which MCM protein complexes 'molecular motors of DNA replication' are loaded on DNA. In a recent review, our colleagues Anoop Kumar Yadav and Hana Polasek-Sedlackova summarized the latest findings on the biology of MCM complexes and how this can be exploited in cancer therapies. The full text of the article can be found here: https://rdcu.be/dyhfJ or under the QR code. The work was supported by grants from the Czech Science Foundation Junior Star (grant no. 22-20303M), the European Research Executive Agency under Horizon 2022 Widera Talent program (ERA grant agreement no. 101090292), and Jihomoravske centrum pro mezinarodni mobilitu (JCMM) project scholarship for foreign students. Enjoy the reading!

February 2024

TALK INVITATION: The Bright and the dark sides of DNA replication stress in human cell physiology and cancer by Assoc. Prof. Kumar Somyajit

On March 14, our laboratory will host Assoc. Prof. Kumar Somyajit at the Institute of Biophysics in Brno. Come to his talk and learn more about DNA replication stress in physiology and cancer.

February 2024

NEW FUNDING: Dr. Hana Polasek-Sedlackova receives a prestigious EMBO Installation Grant

EMBO Installation Grants support group leaders in establishing laboratories in participating countries to strengthen life sciences there. Recipients of the EMBO IG will receive annual grant support in the amount of 50,000 euros and a generous package of benefits for the principal investigator and entire research group, including networking, mentoring, and training offered by the EMBO. Dr. Hana Polasek-Sedlackova and her research group are going to study fundamental molecular mechanisms that couples DNA replication with cell cycle control essential to prevent genome instability and the development of severe diseases, such as cancer. Congratulations!

Foto: Jana Mensatorová

Read more about the funding and project here or here.

January 2024

OPEN POSITION: Postdoc position in DNA replication & genome stability

A postdoc position is available in our lab🔬. If you are interested in DNA replication & genome stability, please get in touch. More information can be found here.

December 2023

NEW FUNDING: MSc. Simran Negi receives a prestigious JCMM scholarship

JCMM scholarship supports talented foreign students from non-EU countries who study technical and natural sciences at four selected universities in Brno. Simran Negi is going to study the molecular interplay between DNA replication and cell cycle control. Many Congratulations! Read short interview with Simran here.

November 2023

OUTREACH ACTIVITY: Researchers' Night at IBP 2023

Last Friday, our institute hosted the Researchers' Night 2023. Our lab prepared a detective story for visitors to show that our research work is often inspired by the detective story, but our crime scene is usually the cell, and the suspects are proteins. Thanks for coming, and see you next year! #ERAfellowship #PublicEducation

October 2023

WORKSHOP INVITATION: IBP career day: Per Aspera Ad Astra 2023

Our lab is the main organizer of IBP career day: Per Aspera Ad Astra 2023. The career day is focused on future career possibilities in the academic and industrial spheres. During the event, four outstanding scientists will share stories of their scientific journeys and will lead popular round table discussions on various topics. We look forward to meeting you! More information here. Registration link here.

September 2023

MEETING INVITATION: ScanR user meeting

The first ScanR user meeting, at which researchers from Czech research institutions will gather to share their knowledge and experience with the system. Two talks will be from the small IBP ScanR community #DNAreplication & #PlantTissue. 

👉 See more information here: https://lnkd.in/em5Hsgrv

👉 Free registration here: https://lnkd.in/ej4hsXsE

August 2023

THESIS DEFENCE: New protein factors in the regulation of human DNA replication origins

Many congratulations to Anna Hrdličková, who successfully defended her bachelor thesis on the topic of New protein factors in the regulation of human DNA replication origins.

June 2023

TALK INVITATION: Cancer cells use self-inflicted DNA breaks to evade growth limits imposed by genotoxic stress by Dr. Jan Benada

On May 25-26, we will host Dr. Jan Benada at the Institute of Biophysics in Brno. Come to his talk and learn more about self-inflicted DNA breaks.

May 2023

NEW PAPER: 110 μm thin endo-microscope for deep-brain in vivo observations of neuronal connectivity, activity and blood flow dynamics

Dr. Jana Krejčí contributed to develop a new endo-microscopy technique for in-vivo brain imaging. Congratulations! Read about the story in Nature Communications.

April 2023

NEW FUNDING: Dr. Hana Polasek-Sedlackova receives a prestigious ERA individual fellowship from the European Research Executive Agency

ERA individual fellowship action builds on the MSCA postdoctoral fellowships 2023 action and supports career development and training of researchers in all scientific disciplines in Widening Countries. ERA fellowship covers living allowances, mobility allowances, family allowances, research and training costs, and administration and indirect costs. In terms of amount, the ERA fellowships belong to the most prestigious individual fellowships in Europe. Dr. Hana Polasek-Sedlackova is going to study replication origins during normal development and tumorigenesis. Congratulations!

January 2023

NEW FUNDING: MSc. Anoop Kumar Yadav receives a prestigious JCMM scholarship

JCMM scholarship supports talented foreign students from non-EU countries who study technical and natural sciences at four selected universities in Brno. Anoop Kumar Yadav is going to study the regulation and maintenance of human replication origins during cancer development. Congratulations!

December 2022

TALK INVITATION: Cullin-dependent ubiquitin ligases in cancer progression by Dr. Lukáš Čermák 

November 2022

NEW PAPER: Early recruitment of PARP-dependent m8A RNA methylation at DNA lesions is subsequently accompanied by active DNA demethylation

A new paper from the laboratory of Dr. Eva Bartova described the role of RNA modifications in base excision repair. Our laboratory contributed to this beautiful story through high-content imaging. Many congratulations to all authors! Read about the story here.

November 2022

NEW LAB PAPER: Solving the MCM paradox by visualizing the scaffold of CMG helicase at active replisomes

For several decades, the MCM2-7, the core of the replicative helicase, had never been visualized at DNA replication sites inside a cell, also known as the MCM paradox. Scientists from the Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences and the University of Copenhagen revisit the mysterious MCM paradox, and their study published last week in Nature Communications solves this puzzling conundrum by CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing. These findings enable visualization of replication dynamics in living cells and open new avenues for understanding the molecular basis of serious human health diseases, such as cancer. Read more about the story here.

Read about the story on ScienceNews.

October 2022

NEW FUNDING: Dr. Hana Polasek-Sedlackova receives a prestigious Junior Star starting grant from the Czech Science Foundation

The JUNIOR STAR starting grants are intended for excellent early career scientists with strong research profiles and ambitious research proposals. Thanks to a five-year project with the possibility of drawing up to 25 million CZK, they get the opportunity to establish their own research group bringing new scientific topics to Czech science. Dr. Hana Polasek-Sedlackova and her new group is going to study how DNA replication is regulated in human cells to achieve a faithful copy of DNA, which is essential to prevent the emergence of mutations and genome instability associated with severe diseases of human health including cancer. The proposed research can lead to the design of new strategies in cancer treatment. Congratulations!

Read more about the project on the Czech Science Foundation webpage here.

February 2022