IT4I Project Approved
published 2018-01-30
The Czech supercomputing center IT4I in Ostrava is the largest facility of this kind in the Czech Republic. To date, its supercomputer Salomon is ranked around 90th place worldwide. I applied to the latest call with a simulation project which deals with a ribosome-regulatory peptide VemP. VemP regulates translation of two bacterial gene variants by modulating the catalytic center of the ribosome. The project received an allocation of about 420 thousand corehours. Compared to our previous LRZ computational project, it is a tiny amount, but I hope it will anyway help us clarify the role of environment on the VemP structure and dynamics. The figure show the VemP in the ribosome exit tunnel. We will simulate the VemP in neat water.
Publication Overview 2017
published 2018-01-19
The whole world of research seems to be obsessed by scientometry. Unfortunately, questions like "how many papers" or "what is the impact factor" replace questions, which may bring truly new advances and insights. The discussion with my colleagues are full of "papers" and "citations". Having a fresh experience from Germany, I feel the contrast even stronger here in Czechia. No wonder, the reason is clear: in the Czech Republic, the science funding depends strongly on the scientometric criteria of the applicant. Certain adaptation to this external pressure is inevitable for any scientist who really means it, now matter one agrees or disagrees with it. Here is my piece of the obsession. During 2017, I monitored my Google Scholar account using a simple python script. I provide a few observations, which attracted my attention.
Moving to Prague
published 2018-01-02
In January 2018, my primary work address changed. I moved (back) to Prague - the heart of Europe. I'm starting an assistant professor position at the University of Chemistry and Technology (UTC). It's only 20 min walk from the Prague castle, 15 min ride from the Vaclav Havel Airport. I keep on studying biomolecular complexes using (super)computers and will be happy to accept informal inquiries from enthusiastic students or postdocs. Just write me an email...
There seems to be a Christmas tree inside the ribosome. All the best in 2018.
published 2018-01-02
Conference at Downing College
published 2017-12-11
Yesterday I arrived to Cambdrige to join a meeting on co-translational folding and nascent peptides. There would be hardly a better-matching topic to what I'm working on in Göttingen. After the first day of talks, I'm looking forward to the remaining two.
Our Review on Ribosome Simulations Available on arXiv
published 2017-11-16
Well, the main message is in the heading. The preprint of our review is here: https://arxiv.org/abs/1711.06067. The paper has just been accepted in Current Opinion in Structural Biology and should be published in April 2018 issue.
Travel Fellowship of the Biochemical Society
published 2017-10-16
Thanks to a travel fellowship of the Biochemical Society (UK) I'll be able to attend a conference on nascent peptides in Cambridge, UK. Hopefully, I will not forget to add the Society's logo onto my poster, which is the only requirement they have. It doesn't look bad anyway, right?
Mechanochembio 2017 in Berlin
last update 2017-10-16
Here I put a few videos that are related to my talk and poster contribution at the Multiscale Mechanochemistry and Mechanobiology 2017 conference in Berlin. The conference takes place in the Harnack Haus, which I find, already after a couple of minutes of being here, an absolutely amazing place to meet.
Assistant Professor at UCT
published 2017-10-05
My new employer will be the University of Chemistry and Technology in Prague. I got an assistent professor position at the Department of physical chemistry. My first duties are related to a course of Spectroscopic methods. Looking forward to starting full time in January 2018.
Ribosome Review Submitted
published 2017-09-19
A review on computer simulations of the ribosome has just been submitted to Current Opinion in Structural Biology. The simulation work on cellular translation grows almost explosively. Our work with Lars and Helmut reviews a fraction of literature from about last 5 years. This is how the graphical abstract of the paper was prepare.