Seminář Despoina Giamaki
2026-04-15 15:00 - 16:00 (Europe/Prague) | Posluchárna Milana Haška / Milan Hašek Auditorium
“A hidden layer of chromatin regulation in neurological disease”
Genome stability and DNA repair are essential for human health. ADP-ribosylation is a key post-translational modification in the DNA damage response, regulated by PARP enzymes. Our research focuses on ARH3, an enzyme that removes mono-ADP-ribose from proteins, as its deficiency is linked to rare neurological disease. Using patient-derived cells, 3D brain organoids and mouse models, we show that loss of ARH3 leads to accumulation of mono-ADP-ribose on chromatin. Genome-wide analyses (CUT&Tag, spatial transcriptomic and RNA-seq) reveal that these changes alter gene expression and modulate other histone modifications. We further explore how these chromatin alterations affect responses to stress, including viral infections, potentially contributing to neuropathology. Our findings provide new insights into disease mechanisms and highlight ADP-ribosylation as a potential therapeutic target in neurological disorders.

Innovation Days in Bioscience Imaging – Vision for Life
2026-04-21 - 2026-04-23 | Posluchárna Milana Haška / Milan Hašek Auditorium

Seminář Karolina Kowalska
2026-04-22 15:00 - 16:00 | Posluchárna 0.195 / Lecture room 0.195
“Mechanisms of MICAL regulation in actin filament disassembly”
Actin oxidation at specific methionine residues is a distinctive mechanism that drives actin filament disassembly. This process is mediated by the cytoskeletal effector MICAL, which selectively associates with and oxidizes actin filaments, thereby promoting their disassembly. MICAL-dependent actin oxidation is essential for axon guidance and also contributes to other biological processes, including angiogenesis, vesicle trafficking, and cytokinesis. Despite its broad biological importance, the molecular basis of MICAL regulation has remained unclear. In this talk, I will show how structural biology approaches, particularly cryo-EM, combined with biochemical assays, provide mechanistic insight into MICAL autoinhibition and its activation by Rab GTPases.

Lecture Jonathan W. Yewdell
2026-04-28 10:00 - 11:30 | Posluchárna Milana Haška / Milan Hašek Auditorium
„How MHC I Peptides Are Generated for Viral and Cancer Immunosurveillance“
The talk focuses on peptide generation from DRiPs (defective ribosomal products), ribosomal generated polypeptides that don’t achieve folded stable forms and are proteolytically converted into peptides presented by MHC I molecules for CD8+ T cell immunosurveillance. Influenza A virus DRiPs will occupy center stage. I will discuss dozens of novel influenza virus gene products we discovered in characterizing DRiPs. These include PB1-F2, the granddaddy of flu alternative reading frame proteins, UFOs generated from host mRNA start codons, and most recently, numerous open reading frames encoded by the negative strand. The talk will conclude with a brief discussion of DRiPs and cancer, and the contribution of “immunoribosomes“ (subsets of ribosomes) to the cancer immuopeptidome.

Seminář Joe Howard
2026-04-29 15:00 - 16:00 | Posluchárna Milana Haška / Milan Hašek Auditorium
“How molecular motors drive the motility of cilia and flagella”
Cilia and flagella are thin, rod-like organelles whose snake-like beating patterns drive cells through fluids and move fluids across cellular surfaces. They play essential roles in locomotion, sensory reception, and signaling. The core structure within the cilium, known as the axoneme, consists of nine pairs of doublet microtubules, a central pair of single microtubules, and a myriad of other proteins, including the axonemal dynein motor proteins, which generate the shear forces that slide adjacent doublets. A key question is how dynein activity is coordinated to produce the characteristic sinusoidal beating patterns. We are addressing this question through reconstitution and modeling, leveraging the genetics of the unicellular alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii.

Methodological Seminar BIOCEV-Krč - Campus Animal Facility
2026-05-04 15:00 - 16:30 | Posluchárna Milana Haška / Milan Hašek Auditorium
Dear all,
we would like to invite you to the seminar as part of the „BIOCEV-Krč Methodological Seminar“:
Topic: „CAMPUS ANIMAL FACILITY“
Seminar program:
Animal Facility FGÚ: Martin Blažka
Animal Facility MBÚ: Alexandra Bartelik / Martin Schwarzer
Animal Facility ÚŽFG: Jiří Klíma
Animal Facility ÚEM: Andrej Litvinec
Animal Facility ÚMG: Libor Kopkan / Jan Honetschläger
The Animal facility methodological seminar will include a series of presentations by representatives of individual institutions located on the campus. Each institution will briefly present its local or detached animal facility and the services it provides.

AI-based Segmentation and Tracking
2026-05-19 - 2026-05-21 | IMG
Learn practical workflows for image segmentation, cell tracking, and denoising using modern deep-learning tools (StarDist, Cellpose, Omnipose, Noise2Void, DeepImageJ, TrackMate, Delta2, ZeroCostDL4MIc, Zeiss arivis Cloud).
More information & registration:
https://course.img.cas.cz/aist/
Registration deadline: May 4
Best regards,
Martin Čapek, Michaela Blažíková, Jan Valečka and Pavel Krist (Zeiss)

Super-Resolution in Light Microscopy - practical course
2026-06-08 - 2026-06-10 | IMG
Dear colleagues,

we would like to announce the upcoming practical course Super-Resolution in Light Microscopy (SLM 2026), which will take place June 8–10, 2026 at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague.

Some of you may know our EMBO Practical Course on Super-Resolution Microscopy, which we bi-annually organize at IMG. The SLM course is a complementary event focused primarily on extended hands-on training, allowing participants to spend more time working directly with the methods and data processing workflows.

The three-day course combines short theoretical introductions with practical sessions in small groups. Participants will work with several super-resolution approaches including SIM, SMLM, STED and optical reassignment methods – Airyscan and SoRa.

The practical sessions are organized in collaboration with the Microscopy unit at the Institute of Experimental Medicine (IEM CAS).

The course is open to an international audience and the number of participants is limited to 15 to ensure an intensive training format.

More information, programme and registration details are available here:
https://course.img.cas.cz/slm/

Registration deadline: May 5, 2026

Please feel free to share this announcement with colleagues who might be interested.

Best regards,

Ivan Novotny & Michaela Blazikova

Ivan Novotny, Ph.D. | Light Microscopy Core Facility

+420 296 44 3192, 3168

+420 777 270 279

ivan.novotny@img.cas.cz

www.img.cas.cz

Flow Cytometry Summer School
2026-06-22 - 2026-06-25 | IMG
