Skalníková Magdalena, Ing., CSc.

At the beginning of my research carrier as a Ph.D. student, I focused on nuclear function and higher-order chromatin structure in human cells at the Department of Molecular Cytology and Cytometry under the supervision of Associate Prof. Stanislav Kozubek, at the Czech Academy of Science at the Institute of Biophysics, Brno (Kozubek et. al., Chromosoma, 1999; Skalníková e.t al., Chromosoma, 2000). As a Postdoc and PI, I focused on epigenetics factors and investigated "The effect of Methylation and Acetylation on the chromatin structure in human cells" at the Centre for Biomedical Image Analysis, Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University Brno (Bártová et al., Journal of Cell Science, 2005; Skalníková et al., Physiological Research, 2007).

I have worked at the Laboratory of Biology of the Cell Nucleus, Institute of Molecular Genetics, AS CR, Prague, as a Science-Research Assistant. I was focused on the role of cytoskeletal proteins in the nucleus, and I have participated in a multidisciplinary project “Multimodal holographic microscope” with FME BUT in Brno and the company TESCAN (2012).

I worked as a Research Assistant at the Institute of Biology and Medical Genetics, First Faculty of Medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital in Prague. I worked in the field of Functional organization of the human cell nucleus. I studied Interplay between replication and transcription in the human cell nucleus. I was interested in "The Role of RPA Protein in DNA Replication". (Smirnov et. al., Journal of Structural Biology, 2014). I had a strong collaboration with Assoc. Prof. Eva Bártová in the field of DNA repair (Sorokin et. al., Nucleus, 2015; Bártová et. al., Protoplasma, 2017).

I worked in the Department of Medical Genomics at CEITEC Masaryk University Brno, as a Senior researcher till 2021. My scientific activity has focused on functional testing of new variants of genes of unclear significance associated with hereditary blood diseases.  (Skalníková M, et.al., International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 2022).

I like the cell biology approach with the combination of microscopy techniques and genome editing and I prefer the motto „Seeing is Believing “.

What are you currently working on? Why do you find your project/work fascinating?

I focus on MCM2-7 protein complexes. I am fascinated by how these protein complexes, which are part of replicative helicase CMG, orchestrated the replisome and influence the huge DNA replication machinery which is essential for genome duplication. I am honored that I am a part of the team and co-work with Dr. Hana Polášek-Sedláčková who resolved the MCM paradox (Polasek-Sedlackova H, et al. Nature Communications, 2022). I am grateful for our cooperative atmosphere in the lab, our fruitful discussions at the lab, and our strong enthusiasm for science.

What do you do when you are not in the lab?