We bring you a selection of the most interesting events that took place at our faculty in the field of science and research in November 2025.
achievments
Marek Mráz won this year's ABB Invention Award in the Česká hlava competition for his research into chronic lymphocytic leukaemia. Together with his teams from the Internal Hematology and Oncology Clinic of the Faculty of Medicine at Masaryk University and Brno University Hospital and CEITEC MU, he is investigating how cancer cells escape targeted treatment and has proposed ways to target them again. This opens up the possibility of more effective treatment for this and other serious forms of leukaemia. Veronika Kamenská, a student in the doctoral program Simulation in Medicine, has won this year's Jan Opletal Award, the most prestigious student award in the Czech Republic. She won in the category of personalities under 30 for her project Nepanikař (Don't Panic), which helps people with mental health issues. Read more success stories here.
science into practice
A triple strike against cancer: block-detect-destroy. Scientists from Michal Masařík's research group are contributing to the development of migrastatics – drugs that restrict the movement of tumor cells, thereby reducing the risk of metastasis. They are using these drugs to develop a new concept in anticancer therapy. A team of scientists from several research institutions is involved in the research and development, including Karel Pacák, a world-renowned expert in endocrine oncology, and scientists from Milan Jakubek's team at the First Faculty of Medicine of Charles University. At the same time, experts from the Faculty of Science of Charles University, specifically a team of molecular and cell biologists from the BIOCEV research center led by Professor Jan Brábek, have also been developing the topic of migrastatics for a long time.
Article of the month
A team of authors from our faculty, in collaboration with Brno University Hospital, has published an article on the intestinal microbiome of pediatric patients with Crohn's disease. They discovered important differences in intestinal tissues—patients who relapsed within a year had much lower bacterial diversity in their intestinal microbiome and a significant lack of Barnesiella bacteria. It was precisely this deficiency that showed a strong correlation with the risk of relapse. The combination of analysis of this bacterium and a standard disease activity score was able to very accurately predict an increased likelihood of worsening condition. This paves the way for reliable non-invasive stool sample tests that would help identify high-risk patients early and initiate appropriate treatment. The research results were published in an international journal Gut Pathogens.
med muni in media
Follicular lymphoma is a cancer of the blood. František Folber, head of the CAR-T program at the Internal Hematology and Oncology Clinic of the Faculty of MED MUNI and University Hospital Brno, presented the unique CAR-T cell therapy, which is only available in a few laboratories around the world, on Czech Radio Dvojka. Mr. Petr, a patient who underwent the new treatment, will also share his story. You can listen to the entire program in the audio archive.
Představujeme
Research Group Genetic Predisposition to Hematologic Disorders. A team led by Michael Doubek, head of the Internal Hematology and Oncology Clinic at Brno University Hospital, is dedicated to identifying genetic predispositions to hematological disorders, particularly rare hereditary blood diseases and malignancies – including variants in genes such as DDX41, RUNX1, GATA2, CEBPA, and others—many of which have a low prevalence (less than 1 in 2,000). Using massively parallel sequencing (MPS) technologies and large-scale genomic projects such as the 1000 Czech Genomes Initiative (A-C-G-T), the team seeks to distinguish pathogenic variants from variants of uncertain significance, assess their functional and phenotypic impact (using approaches such as CRISPR/Cas9), and ultimately integrate these findings into precision medicine to improve the diagnosis, monitoring, and risk assessment of blood disorders.
interesting events
What can you look forward to in December? For example, another Research Breakfast, interesting lectures, conferences, and courses. And also Santa Claus. You can find an overview of all events in the Event Calendar.
stetoskop podcast
In November's episode of the Stetoskop podcast, Hana Lejdarová sat down at the microphone. The head physician of the Transfusion and Tissue Department at Brno University Hospital described the journey that blood takes from collection from the donor to use in a specific patient.
another news
Everything that's happening in science and research at our university. Read about interesting events and the achievements of our scientists and researchers in September.
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Máte novou publikaci, projekt nebo ocenění? Víte o někom, komu se podařilo dosáhnout nějakého úspěchu? Napište nám na research@med.muni.cz.
Faculty of Medicine is involved in another international project under the Erasmus+ program – Cooperative Partnership, which aims to create the first comprehensive training course for medical simulation center technicians.
The Department of Pharmacologyat MED MUNI is now coordinating the GREEN-TRIALS project, which focuses on the environmental impact of clinical trials.
