We are a young group of researchers and students at University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague, Czech Republic. Using computers and supercomputers, we study how proteins are born on ribosomes. We like python and GROMACS.
Michal H. Kolář – group leader
Michal is a theoretical biophysicist based in Prague, Czechia. His expertise ranges from high-level quantum chemistry to large-scale simulations of biomolecules. Currently his group studies protein synthesis on ribosomes, and other topics related to protein–RNA interactions.
Michal is enthusiastic about science but somewhat tends to downshifting. For over twenty years, he participated in Běstvina summer school for gifted teenagers. He is also involved in the Czexpats in Science initiative. Michal likes traveling by train and dislike tomatoes.
Graduate Students
Josef Cikhart (aka Joe)
Joe has a background in molecular biology from the Faculty of food and biochemical technology, UCT Prague. Then he switched to physical chemistry and defended his thesis on molecular dynamics simulation of peptides in non-aqueous solvents. Started his doctoral studies in 2023, he focuses on computer simulations of organellar ribosomes and similar specialities.
Michaela Černeková
Michaela studied molecular biology in Bratislava, Slovakia. She obtained MSc from the Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic. She worked at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry CAS, where she discovered the beauty of computational chemistry. In her diploma thesis, Michaela studied insulin-receptor binding by means of molecular dynamics simulations. She's a dog lover and enjoys books, podcasts and hiking.
Hugo McGrath
Hugo studied chemistry and data engineering. After completing his diploma thesis about the use of classification algorithms to study allostery, he enrolled the Molecular physics doctoral program at UCT Prague. He deals with machine learning and protein synthesis. Hugo likes reading dystopian books and listening to vinyls. He's arguably the biggest movie expert in the group.
Felipe C. Nepomuceno
Felipe studied cellular and molecular biology with the specialization in bioinfromatics at UFRGS Porto Alegre in Brazil. In his diploma thesis, he developed intramolecular potentials of sacharides. Motivated by questions about protein synthesis on ribosomes, he develops simulation workflows to study peptides under confinement.
Undergraduate Students
- Aneta Hrádková
- Michael Křivan
- Rudolf Kvasňovský
- Tomáš Kuzma
- Martin Mašek
- Ondřej Mixl
- Julie Nováková
- Martin Stýblo
- Denis Šebo
High-school interns
- Martin Bouška, Gymnázium Roudnice n. Labem
- Tatiana Šimeková, Gymnazium Martin, Slovakia
- Contact Michal to appear in this list:-)
Alumni
- Lucie Havránková (high-school intern working on SOČ)
- Petr Chalupský (finished bachelor thesis)
- Jan Kejla (finished diploma thesis)
- Jiří Kubíček (high-school intern working on SOČ)
- Aneta Leskourová (finished bachelor and diploma thesis)
- Petr Linhart (finished bachelor and diploma thesis)
- Jan Michna (finished bachelor thesis)
- Arian Adam Ott (finished SOČ and bachelor thesis)
- Daniel Otta (high-school intern)
- Ondřej Strnad (finished bachelor thesis)
- Tereza Svatoňová (finished diploma thesis)
- Iva Švecová (finished bachelor thesis)
- Jakub Žváček (finished diploma thesis)