Researchers’ Night is a science popularization event that researchers from IOCB Prague regularly participate in. This year, of course, the program will be online only, but it will be rich all the same.
We will be showing several documentary videos from our laboratories, where research relating to the fight against COVID-19 is being conducted. Together, we will visit: virologist Jan Weber and his laboratory, which is working on research into the virus and the development of new viral RNA isolation kits; the laboratory of Zlatko Janeba, which is collaborating with researchers from UCT Prague on the development of potential novel therapeutic substances; and the IOCB Development Center, headed by Ondřej Pačes, where new devices and instruments are being engineered for testing, analysis, and active protection against the virus.
At 5:30 p.m. on Friday, following the premiere of the first documentary, there will be a chat with virologist Jan Weber.
You can watch our program starting at 5 p.m. here, on our Facebook event, or on the Researchers’ Night website.
The videos will be in Czech with English subtitles.
Trading the mask for a hazmat suit: how SARS-CoV-2 research is done
What is a virus? What do we really know about the novel coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2? How do we protect ourselves from it and other viruses both during ordinary contact and while working in the lab each day? How effective are masks and respirators?
In this documentary, Jan Weber, who has spent more than twenty years working with viruses, addresses these questions and more. Since 2011, he has headed the Virology Group at IOCB Prague, and this year he has come into contact with coronaviruses practically on a daily basis.
After watching the documentary, you can join a virtual discussion and ask anything you like about viruses.
The quest for drugs against SARS-CoV-2
“For the treatment of COVID-19 – or for other future coronavirus epidemics and pandemics – we anticipate to use combinations of drugs with different mechanisms of action in order to prevent the emergence of resistant virus strains,” says Zlatko Janeba about the latest research being undertaken by his group. His lab recently teamed up with researchers from UCT Prague to focus their efforts on identifying compounds that can block the activity of an important viral enzyme. These compounds could mean a hope for developing a new type of drug against SARS-CoV-2.
In the documentary, the researchers explain the differences between various types of inhibitors and why it is important to target their enzymes. They describe the collaboration between two prestigious institutions and also explain how computational and medicinal chemistry work together.
Robots help build new instruments for researchers in the fight against SARS-CoV-2
Few people know that our institute has its own development center, where we use robots to help us engineer and construct completely new devices and instruments. Those are then used, for example, in testing and analyzing COVID-19 as well as in providing active protection against the disease.
What have we come up with since springtime? What have developed and patented? What are the new instruments for, and what will they be for in the future? And what do the machines and robots we use look like? Find out in the video tour of the IOCB Development Center from Ondřej Pačes, the head of the center.