Laboratory of Molecular Parasitology

Hlavní náplní výzkumu naší skupiny je studium bioaktivních molekul, zejména proteolytických enzymů a jejich inhibitorů, které jsou klíčové pro přežití parazitů v jejich savčích hostitelích. Záběr bioaktivních molekul se však v poslední době rozšiřuje i na některé další proteiny vylučované parazity. Jejich identifikace a charakterizace je nezbytná pro pochopení jejich biologické role v organismu parazita a objasnění jejich interakcí s hostitelem. Využíváme mezioborový výzkumný přístup zahrnující molekulární biologii, biochemii a bioinformatickou imunopatologii. Našimi laboratorními studijními modely jsou především dva nepříbuzné druhy červů: krevní motolice Schistosoma mansoni způsobující onemocnění zvané schistosomóza (https://www.cdc.gov/dpdx/schistosomiasis/) a běžný model hlístice Caenorhabditis elegans (http://www.wormbook.org). Na všech těchto přístupech spolupracujeme s výzkumnými týmy a partnery z EU a USA.

Jan Dvořák

V roce 2005 jsem získal doktorát z molekulární parazitologie na Univerzitě Karlově. Poté jsem strávil plodné roky jako postdok v Sandlerově centru pro objevování léčiv na Kalifornské univerzitě v San Franciscu v laboratoři Jima McKerrowa, kde jsem se zabýval proteolytickými enzymy pod vedením Conora Caffreyho. Po návratu do Evropy se můj výzkum zaměřuje především, ale nejen na proteolytické enzymy a jejich inhibitory z parazitických organismů. Naše laboratoř rutinně pracuje s parazity z řad ploštic a hlístic, přičemž jako výzkumné modely používá Schistosoma mansoni a Caenorhabditis elegans. Aktivně spolupracujeme s našimi partnery z Evropy a USA.

Vedoucí týmu

Členové týmu

Kristýna Peterková

Týna completed her Master of Science studies in Parasitology at Charles University, where her research was focused on investigating gene expression patterns of peptidases in the fluke Fascioloides magna. Currently, Týna is pursuing her doctoral degree in Parasitology at the same university and is actively involved in our laboratory's research efforts. She specializes in bioinformatics and utilizes this knowledge to study transcriptomic profiles of Schistosoma mansoni eggs across various strains and stages of infection. Moreover, Týna plays a vital role in our laboratory as she is responsible for the maintenance of the S. mansoni cycle and provides parasite material for research. During the third year of her doctoral studies, Týna was granted a fellowship to a prestigious partner laboratory in San Diego, California. Her research during this fellowship focused on studying the peptidase activity of specific egg molecules, further honing her expertise in the field of parasitology.

Lukáš Konečný

Lukáš graduated from Charles University with a Master's degree in Parasitology, where he focused on excretory-secretory products of avian schistosomes of the genus Trichobilharzia. He also completed his MPhil at University College London, where he worked on a bioinformatics pipeline for the identification of hidden parasites in RNAseq datasets. He is currently a 1st year Ph.D. student, and his dissertation focuses on Venom allergen-like proteins of Schistosoma mansoni eggs - the causative agent of human schistosomiasis. His project primarily studies gene expression levels, immunohistochemical localization of these molecules, and protein interactions using molecular-biochemical methods.

Vojtěch Vacek

Vojta has studied parasitology in the faculty of science Of Charles University. During his studies, he was interested in evolutionary protistology, focusing on mitochondria of anaerobic protists and Iron-Sulfur cluster assembly in Preaxostyla. After finishing his Ph.D., he moved to the Lab of Jan Dvorak and is mainly working with the model organism Caenorhabditis elegans. He is primarily doing transcriptomic and phylogenetic analyses as well as some molecular biology in the lab.

Lucie Panská

Lucie Panská graduated from the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University in Brno. Then she studied a doctoral program at the 3rd Medical Faculty of Charles University, where she defended her doctoral thesis named “Study of neuropathophysiological changes in the mammalian host caused by avian schistosome infection”. She worked as a researcher at the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague and studied pathology and immune response in the CNS of mice infected with the neuropathogenic avian schistosome Trichobilharzia regenti. At our laboratory, she is involved in research on biologically active molecules of parasitic helminths. Her main research interests are imaging techniques (light and fluorescence microscopy, confocal microscopy, and transmission electron microscopy) and subsequent digital image processing.

Lucie Jedličková

Lucie completed her Ph.D. studies at the Department of Parasitology at the Faculty of Science, Charles University, where she was focused on peptidases and their inhibitors from blood-feeding monogenean parasites of carps Eudiplozoon nipponicum. During her studies, she gained experience in the field of molecular biology, biochemistry, and immunohistochemistry. She is currently working on bioactive molecules from blood fluke Schistosoma mansoni involved in parasite-host interactions.