Vice-directors

Pavlína Řezáčová studied at the Faculty of Science of Charles University where she received a doctorate in molecular biology, genetics and virology in 2004. From 2005 to 2007, she worked as a postdoctoral fellow at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, USA. Since 2007 she has been leading the Structural Biology research group at IOCB Prague. She teaches at Charles University, UCT Prague and at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice, where she was appointed associate professor of biophysics in 2019. In her research, she focuses on structural investigation of biologically or medicinally relevant proteins and protein-protein complexes to understand their biological function and ways how to modulate it.

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Martin Fusek studied organic chemistry at the University of Chemical Technology in Prague, where he also completed his postgraduate studies of biochemistry in 1988. From 1989 to 1995, he worked as a postdoctoral fellow in the United States and Germany, then moved to industry and worked for Sigma-Aldrich and Merck. He has been teaching UCT Prague since 1995, in 2012 he was appointed professor of biochemistry. Since 2007 he has been organizing technology transfer at IOCB Prague. In 2009 he became the director of its newly established subsidiary IOCB Tech, which takes care of the technology transfer process for the institute since then.

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Zdeněk Hostomský studied biochemistry at the Faculty of Science and the history of philosophy at the Faculty of Arts of Charles University. He continued at the Institute of Molecular Genetics, where he focused on genetic engineering and in 1983 completed his postgraduate studies. In 1985, he went to the United States for a one-year internship at Caltech. In 1987 he emigrated to the United States and worked for Agouron Pharmaceuticals, Warner Lambert, and finally Pfizer, where he became executive director of oncology research in 2000. In 2012–2022 he worked as the director of IOCB Prague. After the end of his term, he was awarded the position of Honorary Chair and continues as vice-director for international relations.

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Jiří Polman is an organic chemist with experience in both academia and business. He studied at the Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, and earned his Ph.D. in 1990 at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry. That same year, he began his management career at the US company DuPont, later serving as Sales Director at Tatra, working as a consultant, and, starting in 2011, as CEO of Sandvik Chomutov Precision Tubes, a manufacturer of precision tubes for offshore oil extraction and the nuclear industry. From 2018, he served as chairman of Český strojírenský holding a.s. In 2021, he co-founded H2O nanotec, a company focused on applying nanotechnology in water purification. In 2022, he returned to IOCB Prague and has held the role of Vice-director for Strategy since November 2024.

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Jiří Cairola graduated from the Prague University of Economics and Business. Between 1991 and 2012, he worked in the banking sector, primarily in commercial roles but also as a risk manager. From 2010 to 2012, he served as the Director of Corporate Marketing at Komerční banka. In the next phase of his career, he worked in the corporate sector in economic and tax departments. Before joining IOCB Prague, he held the position of Deputy Director for Economics, Technology, and Operations at Thomayer University Hospital.

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