Newsletters and Internal information

Dear Colleagues,

In order to improve and unify internal communication, we would like to inform you about the new structure of internal messages and newsletters that you will receive in your mailboxes.

RECETOX News (internal newsletter)

• Internal communications providing information on important operational and organizational issues, approaching deadlines, rules and instructions. So far, this information was sent by Lenka Helclová.
• News, events and invitations to major events
• A selection of publications and awarded projects,
• Other interesting information.

RECETOX Events

• will be sent every Monday informing about lectures, seminars and other relevant events held at RECETOX this week. At the same time, the "Save the date" section will inform about other upcoming events.

RECETOX Newsletter

• will continue to be published quarterly as you know it (archive).

We welcome your feedback, comments and suggestions for information and articles that should appear in these materials. For more information, please contact Martin Smolík (martin.smolik@recetox.muni.cz).

RECETOX wants to bring a top scientist

As part of the ERA Chair project we will hire a top international scientist, who will contribute to exploiting RECETOX‘s potential, and further its development in the field of environmental epidemiology, bioinformatics and biostatistics

The position has been advertised since October and the deadline for applications is 15.12. The advertisements are available on the project website and on a number of servers, eg. Euraxess, Nature Jobs and Research Gate. 

Join the CELSPAC SPECIMEn research study

We want to offer you the opportunity to participate in an international research study examining the exposure of humans living in agricultural areas to pesticides. Since very little information is presently known about the human population's pesticide load, RECETOX is launching a European study focusing on families with children aged 6-11 years.

Please share this information with your colleagues and acquaintances; you can of course also participate. We are looking for 100 parents (>21 years old) and 100 children (aged 6-11 years) pairs, living in the same household.

We will compare the occurrence of pesticides in urine samples of the population living in an agricultural area (inhabitants of settlements near orchards and vineyards up to 250 m) with a control population (outside the orchards and vineyards area). Samples will be taken 1x in winter and 1x in summer (2019-2020).

All study participants will receive a small gift and will be included in a raffle for a fitness trackers.

We will be thrilled if you could help us find participants for this study, which will ultimately provide crucial information regarding exposure to these pesticides.

You can find more detailed information HERE or by Pavel Čupr.

Changes in access to INBIT building

Dear colleagues, access to the INBIT building has been changed. It will be necessary to have another card which will be issued (if you have access to the INBIT now) in the reception of INBIT. It won´t be possible to enter to the INBIT with employ card from MU. Please pick up your card on a time. You can find more information HERE.

• TAČR Zéta with the deadline on 21st November 2019
  
  
• GAMU G with the deadline on 30th November 2019
  
  
• H2020: see Funding & Tenders Portal
  
  
• EEA and Norway Grants – Programmes: Environment (Trolltunga – Bilateral initiatives), Education, Health, Bilateral Cooperation – deadlines for individual calls listed at EEA and Norway Grants
  
  
• Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions - Innovative Training Networks (MSCA-ITN) with the deadline on 14th January 2020
  
  
• Visegrad Fund (Visegrad Grants, Visegrad+ Grants, Strategic Grants) with the deadline on 01st February 2020
  
  
• Institut français de Prague offers last-minute grants funded by French government for students (any study level, from undergrad to PhD) or young researchers (thesis presented in the past year) to do a study stay or internship/research stay in France. The student/young scientist needs to have identified where to stay and send a letter of agreement from a French supervisor to Ms. Lauriane Labourel (lauriane.labourel@ifp.cz). The stay needs to take place in December (between December 4th and 31st but can be less than the whole timeframe). It is not possible to cumulate the French government grant with a French salary (e.g. from the university). For a master’s degree student, the monthly internship rate for the program is 920€. For a PhD research stay, it is 1704€, same thing for young researchers. The student needs to provide the agreement letter from the French supervisor, an ID scan and information form which Ms. Labourel will send directly to the applicants.

Successful projects (September - October)

• GAČR EXPRO: doc. Klára Hilscherová - Holistic exposure and effect potential assessment of complex chemical mixtures in the aquatic

• H2020, RIA, Health, demographic change and wellbeing: doc. Pavel Čupr - EXposome Powered tools for healthy living in urbAN SEttings

• MSCA-ITN: prof. Luděk Bláha - Best chemical risk assessment professionals for maximum Ecosystem Services benefit
  In autumn a MSCA-ITN project PRORISK was selected for funding with MU, namely prof. Luděk Bláha in the role of the coordinator. The PRORISK consortium contains 11 beneficiaries and 7 partner organisations from 9 European countries and Canada. PRORISK aims at creating a novel platform for training a network of Early Stage Researchers in the field of advanced Environmental Risk Assessment that is nowadays rapidly changing from relying on simplified descriptive laboratory tests to incorporating mechanistic, ecological and socio-economic process information. The overall budget is 3 994 234 EUR from which almost 469 800 is allocated to RECETOX.

Submitted proposals: (September - October)

• TAČR Éta: doc. Julie Dobrovolná - Metodika evaluace modelových sebeobranných situací a stresové rezilience příslušníků Policie České republiky
• H2020, RIA, Sustainable Food Security, 2nd stage: doc. Jakub Hofman - Sustainable plant protection transition: a global health approach
• MSCA-IF: Dr. Jana Navrátilová - Investigation of the effects of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances on reproductive health in the fire-fighting environment
• MSCA-IF: Dr. Elliott Price - Innovative exposure profiling to elucidate the mechanistic toxicity of “real life” pollutant mixtures adversely impacting male fertility
• ERC Starting Grant: Dr. Lisa Melymuk - Elucidating causes of ALlergic disorders through the early-life EXposome
• Royal Society of Chemistry: Dr. Katerina Kademoglou - Make-up your mind: Assessing endocrine disruptors content in cosmetic products from the Czech Republic
• FRMU: Dr. Michal Bittner - Vytvoření anglicky vyučovaného předmětu "Sustainable development - challenges and consequences" a inovace předmětu "E0320 Udržitelný rozvoj - globální výzvy a souvislosti"
• FRMU: Dr. Petra Růžičková - Inovace bloku laboratorního cvičení Základy studia environmentálních procesů
• FRMU: Dr. Danka Haruštiaková - Inovace výuky předmětu Bi5980 Statistické hodnocení biodiverzity
• FRMU: Dr. Zdeněk Spáčil - Posílení jazykových kompetencí a inovace výuky v angličtině v rámci internacionalizace biologických, chemických a biochemických oborů
• Specifický výzkum: prof. Luděk Bláha - Studentský výzkum v oblastech environmentální toxikologie v roce 2020
• Specifický výzkum: prof. Jana Klánová - Výzkum studentů v oblastech chemie životního prostředí a hodnocení rizik v roce 2020
• Specifický výzkum: Dr. Peter Šebej - Výzkum studentů zaměřen na chování chemických látek v prostředí a v lidském těle, transformačních mechanismů a změn, které způsobují; vývoj nových molekul umožňujících kontrolovat chování a transport vybraných látek, vývoj senzorů a signálních molekul

T5:

Kokkonen, P.; Bednar, D.; Pinto, G.; Prokop, Z.; Damborsky, J. Engineering enzyme access tunnels. (2019), Biotechnology Advances, 37 (6-7), Article Number: 107386, doi: 10.1016/j.biotechadv.2019.04.008

T10:

Huysman, S.; Vanryckeghem, F.; De Paepe, E.; Smedes, F.; Haughey, S. A.; Elliott, Ch. T.; Demeestere, K.; Vanhaecke, L. Hydrophilic divinylbenzene for equilibrium sorption of emerging organic contaminants in aquatic matrices.  (2019), Environmental Science & Technology, 53 (18), 10803-10812, doi: 10.1021/acs.est.9b01814

Zverina, O.; Kuta, J.; Coufalik, P.; Koseckova, P.; Komarek, J. Simultaneous determination of cadmium and iron in different kinds of cereal flakes using high-resolution continuum source atomic absorption spectrometry. (2019) Food Chemistry, 298, Article Number: UNSP 125084, doi: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2019.125084

Q1:

Sudoma, M.; Neuwirthova, N.; Hvezdova, M.; Svobodova, M.; Bilkova, Z.; Scherr, K. E.; Hofman, J. Fate and bioavailability of four conazole fungicides in twelve different arable soils - Effects of soil and pesticide properties. (2019) Chemosphere, 230, 347-359, doi: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.04.227

Baho, D. L.; Pomati, F.; Leu, E.; Hessen, D. O.; Moe, S. J.; Norberg, J.; Nizzetto, L. A single pulse of diffuse contaminants alters the size distribution of natural phytoplankton communities. (2019), Science of The Total Environment, 683, 578-588, doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.05.229

Videnska, P.; Smerkova, K.; Zwinsova, B.; Popovici, V.; Micenkova, L.; Sedlar, K.; Budinska, E. Stool sampling and DNA isolation kits affect DNA quality and bacterial composition following 16S rRNA gene sequencing using MiSeq Illumina platform.  (2019), Sci Rep 9, 13837, doi:10.1038/s41598-019-49520

Taylor, A. C.; Fones, G. R.; Vrana, B.; Mills, G. A. Applications for Passive Sampling of Hydrophobic Organic Contaminants in Water - A Review. (2019) Critical Reviews in Analytical Chemistry, doi: 10.1080/10408347.2019.1675043

Komprda, J.; Komprdova, K.; Dominguez-Romero, E.; Mikes, O.; Rihackova, K.; Cupr, P.; Cerna, M.; Scheringer, M. (2019),  Dynamics of PCB exposure in the past 50 years and recent high concentrations in human breast milk: Analysis of influencing factors using a physiologically based pharmacokinetic model. Science of The Total Environment, 690, 388-399. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.06.504

Save the date:

• KVALITA OVZDUŠÍ V BRNĚ A VŮBEC, 19 a 25 November 2019 (Brno Observatory and Planetarium, 6:00 pm)
• Kick-off meeting CETOCOEN Excellence (TEAMING H2020), 15 January 2020 (University Campus Library, afternoon)

Seminar Series:

• RECETOX Seminar series (Tuesdays, 9:00 am) building A29, room 252 (RCX 1 Lecture room)
• ​Seminar Series for Bachelor and Master Students (Wednesdays, 1:00 pm) building A29, room 252 (RCX 1 Lecture room)