Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Czech Academy of Sciences
On May 22 and 23, 2025, the traditional Annual IMG Conference was held at the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Czech Academy of Sciences (IMG) in Krč. The conference included a series of scientific lectures on the latest discoveries of almost half of the IMG research groups and a lecture by Prof. Claudio Sunkel, Chairman of the IMG International Advisory Board. The conference also included a lecture by the IMG Director on the work at the Institute in 2024 and Awards for the best publications of the past year.
A total of 11 scientific lectures were held during one and a half days, in which laboratory heads or their representatives introduced the audience to ongoing experiments and recent research results.
At the end of the second day of the conference, Prof. Claudio Sunkel spoke on the topic “The institute for research and innovation health – i3S: looking at future health research”. The Institute for Research and Innovation in Health (i3S) is the largest research institution in Portugal, which is dedicated to health research and focuses on improving the quality of life and health status of people. Prof. Sunkel, as the director of i3S, introduced this research institution and offered opportunities for cooperation.
Prof. Claudio Sunkel presented the organizational structure of the institution, its vision and several specific projects. He outlined what it is like to manage an institution with approximately 1400 people, 66 research groups, almost 300 PhD students and 248 ongoing projects. Although he is now more of an administrator he still remains a scientist dealing with chromosome segregation.
The main goal of i3S is to contribute to the transformation of health sciences through an interdisciplinary agenda that addresses some of the greatest challenges of our time through excellence in research, training new generations of scientists, providing advanced clinical services, supporting knowledge evaluation and health literacy.
Research at i3S represents a complex ecosystem that connects molecular and cellular biologists with translational medicine and directly with patients. The advantage is close cooperation with nearby hospitals, which significantly accelerates diagnostics and medical feedback. The ecosystem built in this way provides the basis for individualized research and diagnostics, and subsequently for personalized treatment. The main research directions of the institution are cancer, immunity and infection, and neurobiology.
Prof. Sunkel emphasized that an important part of i3S is an extensive network of administrative staff who try to minimize the burden placed on scientists. He mentioned that more than 60% of funding comes from foreign grants, and therefore it is necessary to know the individual specifics of grant applications. The institution also includes a number of highly specialized facilities led by qualified researchers. They can consult with scientists and plan experiments well.
In conclusion, Prof. Sunkel offered that he would be happy to spread awareness of the IMG among his colleagues and support any cooperation, sharing of experiences, the introduction of exchange internships or joint seminars.
The director of the institute, Petr Dráber, began his contribution by emphasizing the importance of the individual pillars on which the institute stands. He highlighted the excellent scientific results and the need for national and international cooperation, but also the importance of service workplaces, large national infrastructures and the necessary synergy of the administrative background. He continued by summarizing the changes in the organizational structure of the IMG in the previous and current year. This mainly concerned the establishment of two new junior groups of Dr. Huranova and Dr. Baptista and the termination of the activities of one junior group. He mentioned that the Management Board, the IMG Board and the IMG Supervisory Board worked without changes in the previous year, which contributes to the stability of the institute.
He also focused on scientific life at the institute. In recent years, a balanced budget has been maintained and more than half of the income comes from projects and grants. The Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS) was asked for several grants to finance large investments, but for 2025 it only financially supported one, smaller investment.
The director thanked the employees of the administrative departments for their hard work in replacing the cooling unit on the roof of the main building and other activities and drew attention to the upcoming repairs of the elevator, the roof of the dormitory and the kitchen and the planned reconstruction of building V and the workplace in Koleč.
He then mentioned the changes in the collective agreement, primarily the addition of an additional week of vacation, instead of three days, i.e. sick days. He also announced that the institute did not receive financial support for the project “Research Environment” within the framework of the Jan Amos Comenius Operational Programme, but will use the supporting materials to obtain the HR award, which obliges to comply with the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Research Workers.
The presentation also included plans for 2025. The director mentioned the next round of evaluation of scientific institutions of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, specifically for the years 2020-2024, as well as the many planned inspections in 2025. He appreciated that the institute’s staff had participated in a number of popularization activities in recent years, while also providing several significant educational and socialization events directly at the institution. He also mentioned that negotiations are currently underway with representatives of university faculties on IMG cooperation contracts in providing doctoral study programs. Towards the end of the presentation, he outlined a new form of concluding employment contracts, which will not be tied to five-year attestation cycles.
In the next part, the director briefly reported on thirteen publications that he considered to be the most significant publication results of the past year and which were included in the IMG Annual Report for 2024.
Finally, the director awarded the best publication results of 2024. He mentioned that the IMG Council did not have an easy task to select the 3 best from a number of exceptionally high-quality publications. He reminded that the Award of the Director of the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, as stated in the statute of this award, is a prestigious award for the excellent results and contributions of the IMG author teams in the field of scientific focus of the institute.
“This award follows the wishes of former IMG Director Josef Říman that funds from his estate be used to recognize individuals and/or scientific teams who have achieved new and fundamental scientific insights in their research activities during each calendar year.” As the Director further adds: “Thanks to the financial support from the estate of Josef Říman, we are able to recognize the top three publications each year that have made significant contributions to the advancement and development of the field of molecular biology.”
The third place was awarded to the publication from the laboratory of Jiří Hejnar: “Receptor usage of Syncytin-1: ASCT2, but not ASCT1, is a functional receptor and effector of cell fusion in the human placenta” published in The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
The second place was awarded to the laboratory of Daniel Rozbeský for publication “Structural basis of MICAL autoinhibition” in Nature Communication.
Finally, the first place was awarded to the laboratory of Zbyněk Kozmik: “Cell type and regulatory analysis in amphioxus illuminates evolutionary origin of the vertebrate head” published in Nature Communication.
The director concluded his presentation by thanking all IMG employees for their work in the past period and expressed his wish that the quality work and cooperation within all five pillars of IMG would continue in the following period.
The event continued with a party in the IMG premises until late at night.
