Seminars

of the department of physical and macromolecular chemistry

Departmental Seminars

The Seminars of the Department of Physical and Macromolecular Chemistry are back, and in the upcoming semester they will be organized in the following way: There are going to be guest speakers and PhD students presenting during the semester.

If there will be no covid restrictions, the lectures will take place on Wednesdays in building of Chemical departments (Hlavova 8, Praha 2) at 14:00 in lecture room CH3

All the seminars will be held in a hybrid manner as zoom meetings. To connect use the link

There are no upcoming seminars scheduled yet

Departmental seminar on 24th May 2023

We have a guest, Prof. Rita de Sousa Dias from University of Trondheim. The topic of her lecture is DNA condensation and polyelectrolyte complex formation.

The The folding of DNA has attracted a considerable interest ever since DNA was found to be the storage of genetic information. Chromosomal DNAs are often many orders of magnitude larger than their biological packages (cells or viruses) and, in eukaryotic cells, packing is achieved by the wrapping of DNA around small, basic proteins, called histones. Bacterial cells are very different from eukaryotic cells; they present no nuclear membrane that confines the DNA and there is no compelling evidence for the existence of histone-like proteins that condense and organize the genome. Instead, there is a range of DNA-binding proteins that modulate DNA via bending or bridging. One such type of proteins, H-NS, is a dimer that can self-associate into oligomers and induce bridging between different tracts of DNA. In addition, the cytoplasm very large concentration of macromolecules (RNA and proteins) in the cells is believed to favor DNA condensation due to molecular crowding. Nucleic acid (e.g., DNA, RNA) condensation is also relevant from a technological point of view, being the first step in both DNA purification processes and nuclei acid delivery applications. The complexation of the nucleic acids with cationic macromolecules (e.g. lipids, polymers), often reduces their dimensions, the negative charges and protect the nucleic acids agains digestion by enzymes.

This lecture will start with a general introduction on DNA condensation in cells, followed by some results of a work that explored the effect of steric repulsion and protein self-assembly on DNA condensation in model bacterial cells. Afterwards I will focus on DNA condensation in vitro and review some work on the interaction between DNA and surfactants, dendrimer and peptide-conjugated dendrimers.

The lecture will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

 

Departmental seminar on 17th May 2023

We would like to invite you to the habilitation  lecture by Dr. Ivana Šloufová. The topic of her lecture is Investigation of surface interactions between plasmonic nanoparticles and molecules using surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy.

Surface-enhanced Raman scattering spectroscopy (SERS) is a powerful sensing technique based on amplification of the Raman signal of molecules adsorbed on or in close proximity to a plasmonic metal nanostructure. It works mainly by utilizing the electromagnetic field enhancement generated by the excitation of localized surface-plasmon resonance and resulting in a significant increase in the Raman scattering signal. SERS has numerous applications in chemistry, material science, biochemistry, and medical diagnostics.

The primary focus of this habilitation lecture is to emphasize the potential of SERS spectroscopy in studying of the formation and the molecular structure of surface complexes of polypyridine molecules, in monitoring chemical process on surfaces as well as the role of plasmon catalysis.

The lecture will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

 

Departmental retreat in Liblice

9.5.

  • 13.00 Arrival and Accommodation
  • 14.00-14.10 Opening - Tomáš Obšil
  • 14.15-15.15 Introductory lectures of PhD students (1 year students - 5 min – 5 slides/each) - 01 - Michaela Vaňková, 02 - Ayca Tuba Tunca, 03 - Ali Zeraatkar, 04 - Soňa Mesíková, 05 - Petr Golis, 06 - Emad Shamma, 07 - Yuqi Zhang, 08 - Talat Zakeri)
  • 15.15-16.15 Future plans – Assistant Professors (6-8 min) - 01 – Lucie Nová, 02 – Oleg Rud, 03 – Pavla Eliášová, 04 – Jan Přech, 05 – Michal Mazur, 06 – Christopher Heard, 07 – Mariusz Uchman, 08 – Junji He
  • 16.30-18.00 Free afternoon – volleyball (P. Eliášová, M. Mazur)
  • 18.30 Dinner at the fire (it depends on the weather)

 

10.5.

  • 9.00-10.40 Lectures of PhD students (5 x 15 min + 5 min discussion) - 01 - Andrej Chernyshev, 02 - David Šorm, 03 - Alena Hašková, 04 - Lucie Havelková, 05 - Denisa Folprechtová, 06 - Ang Lii
  • 10.45-11.00 Coffee break
  • 11.00-12.20 Lectures (5 x 15 min + 5 min discussion) - 07 - Zuzana Kadlecová, 08 - Ondřej Veselý, 09 - Sebastian Pineda, 10 – Karolína Honzejková, 11 - Sarra Abdi
  • 13.00-14.00 Lunch
  • 14.00-15.20 Postdoc Lectures (4 x 15 min + 5 min discussion) – Po01 - Semira Bener, Po02 – Andreas Erlebach, Po03 – Robert Mundil, Po04 - Daniel Rainer
  • 15.30-16.00 Coffee break
  • 16.00-16.30 Dr. Paul Diddams - PhD in Chemistry and the Way Beyond
  • 16.30-17.30 Prof. Petr Slavíček (VŠCHT)
  • 19.00 Dinner

 

11.5.

  • 8.00 Breakfast and Departure

Departmental seminar on 26th April 2023

We have a guest, Prof. David Hoksza from Charles University, Faculty of Mathematics and Physics. The topic of his lecture is Machine learning-based detection of protein-ligand binding sites.

The presentation will cover machine-learning based approaches for protein-ligand binding sites prediction. Firstly, our state-of-the-art approach which detects binding sites based on the 3D structure of a protein will be discussed. The method utilizes a mesh-based representation of protein surface, over which a machine-learning model is trained for subsequent detection. In addition, metrics used binding site prediction methods evaluation, along with their advantages and disadvantages, will be discussed. Then, our recent work will be introduced where we will show the performance of the recently developed protein language models in predicting positions of binding sites solely from protein sequence and how it compares to existing state-of-the-art methods.

The lecture will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

Departmental seminar on 19th April 2023

The first year PhD students will present their research topics.

 

The seminar will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

Departmental seminar on 11th April 2023

We have a guest, Prof. Marija Bešter-Rogač from the University of Ljubljana, Slovenia. The topic of her lecture is Ionic liquids in solutions: from electrolytes to surfactants.

In recent decades, ionic liquids (ILs) have attracted attention due to their suitability as systems for a variety of applications. However, the growing number of studies dealing with the physicochemical properties of ILs in their pure state has been extended to investigations of their mixtures with molecular co-solvents. It turned out that ILs in solutions can serve as excellent (electrolyte) model systems, since they exist in a variety of structures and many of them are fully miscible with different solvents, while the solubility of "classical" electrolytes is limited. In addition, ILs with long alkyl chains behave similarly to conventional surfactants, forming  aggregates in water. However, the possible variations in chain length and counterions make them ideal for studying ion and isomer effects on self-assembly processes in solutions.

The lecture will take place in person, in the hall CH6, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

Departmental seminar on 29th March 2023

We would like to invite you to the habilitation  lecture by Prof. Michal Kohout from University of Chemistry and Technology. The topic of his lecture is Design and applications of photosensitive liquid crystals.

Liquid crystals (LCs), a phenomenon that significantly influences our daily lives. We use technologies based on LCs in mobile phones, TV screens and many other optoelectronic devices. Apart from materials science, LCs reach far into the realm of biochemistry since cell walls as well as short fragments of DNA are liquid crystalline. The discovery of liquid crystals dates back to the 19th century, when Friedrich Reinitzer, a professor at  Charles University in Prague observed an interesting behaviour during melting of cholesteryl benzoate, which, with the help of Otto Lehmann, he later described as crystals that flow – liquid crystals.
Contemporary research on LCs in the area of materials chemistry is mainly focused on advanced self-assembling systems that, apart from response to the mechanical stress and electric field, feature a special functionality responsible for their instant response to a magnetic field or light. Among them, photosensitive materials play a prominent role due to broad application potential in non-linear optics and photonics. From the variety of photosensitive units applied in the design of liquid crystals, the azo group stands out for the distinct conditions of photoisomerization of the thermodynamically stable E-(trans-) isomer to the photochemically preferred Z-(cis-) isomer and vice versa.
Recently, we have focused on the design and synthesis of chiral photosensitive materials and their application as chiral photosensitive ligands to stabilize magnetic nanoparticles. The nanomaterial represents the first  example of a multifunctional dopant, which upon mixing with an achiral liquid crystal gives rise to the photosensitive and magnetic nanocomposite showing a chiral mesophase. Moreover, we prepared a series of photosensitive bent-core materials based on a 4-chlororesorcinol central core featuring various linking units in the side arms. Certain combination of the azo group in one elongating side arm and a particular linking unit in the other gave rise to the broad range of a nematic phase. We have utilized these compounds in a prototype of an optical memory device.

The lecture will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

Departmental seminar on 15th March 2023

The first and second year master students will present their research topics:

Ondrej Kopilec from the Polymer Synthesis and Biomaterials research group,

Timea Derérová from the Electrophoresis and Chromatography research group,

Magdaléna Nejedlá from the Soft Matter research group,

Adam Škorňa from the Soft Matter research group.

The seminar will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.

Departmental seminar on 1st March 2023

The first year master students will present their research topics:

Kevin Kotalík from BIOCEV ,

Daniel Berdár form BIOCEV,

Petr Eminger from Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, Czech Academy of Sciences,

Adam Hašpl from the Soft Matter research group.

The seminar will take place in person, in the hall CH3, Faculty of Science, Hlavova 8, Praha 2.