Masaryk University

Masaryk University is a public education and research organisation, founded in 1919 as the second Czech university, in Brno, South Moravian Region. It comprises of nine faculties and two university institutes with over 200 departments, institutes and clinics, more than 37,000 students and 4,500 employees, making it the second largest university in the Czech Republic.

RECETOX

The Centre, which is responsible for the project's implementation and is also its primary beneficiary, is an independent department of Masaryk University’s Faculty of Science in Brno, Czech Republic, celebrating more than 35 years of academic and research excellence in the fields of environmental and health. Although it initially focused on the interactions among chemicals, environments, and biological systems, and their consequences on local, regional, and global levels, the Centre’s current, and long-term strategic vision is to become an international center of excellence, supporting research and education focused on unravelling the role of environmental factors in human health, aging, and wellbeing, developing innovative approaches to environmental and health protection, and tools for prevention, diagnostics, and intervention.

RECETOX is currently the faculty’s most successful institute in terms of number of implemented European framework projects (now c. 17 H2020 projects), and its research infrastructure (RI) is included in the Czech National Roadmap of Large Infrastructures for Research, Development, and Innovation. RECETOX is currently conducting two major longitudinal cohort studies, operates accredited trace analytical laboratories, environmental databases, and information systems. RECETOX also serves as the Regional Centre of the Stockholm Convention for Capacity Building and Technology Transfer in Central and Eastern Europe and the National Centre for Toxic Compounds of the Czech Republic.

Over the last decade, RECETOX has earned an international reputation in the environmental sciences, especially in the fields of environmental analytical chemistry, toxicology and modelling.

Key People

doc. RNDr. Pavel Čupr, Ph.D.

Project coordinator

is an associate professor of ecotoxicology and risk assessment with an expertise in assessment of human exposure and risks related to inhalation, ingestion and dermal contact of chemicals, interpretation of human bio-monitoring data, DNA damages in vivo, DNA repair and DNA This proposal version was methylation as an biomarker of effects in human population and PBPK modeling. He has been involved in several EU FP projects and served as a PI of international (2xInterReg) and national projects. He is a member of the POPs Review Committee of the Stockholm Convention and other advisory bodies. He published 62 WoS papers, has > 1130 cits, h-index 20 (ResearcherID WOS: http://www.researcherid.com/rid/H-4180-2012). He supervises 4 Ph.D. students of the Centre (7 Ph.D. graduates). As a coordinator of the Twinning he will be responsible for the overall implementation of the project.

prof. Martin Scheringer, Dr. sc. nat.

received his habilitation degree from the Department of Chemistry and Applied Biosciences of ETH Zürich. In his research, he develops models for the quantitative analysis of the cycling of chemicals in the environment, human diet, and the human body; he integrates these models into the technical, legal and economic context of chemical technology and of risk assessment for chemicals. This type of work requires relationships to many different fields and Martin Scheringer has established productive interdisciplinary collaborations with scientists from the humanities, social sciences, and many fields of the natural sciences. He has published over 230 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals and currently has an h- index of 47 with > 7300 citations. In 2015, he became an associate editor of Environmental Science & Technology, the leading scientific journal in the field of environmental chemistry (published by the American Chemical Society).

prof. RNDr. Jana Klánová, Ph.D.

is a director of the RECETOX Centre and RECETOX Research Infrastructure, and a professor of environmental chemistry with an expertise in assessment of human exposure pathways, indoor and outdoor monitoring, development of sampling and analytical methods, fate of chemical compounds in the environment, and transport and transformation processes. She was a PI for MU in two EU FP5, one FP6 projects and three FP7 projects, including one MSC ITN. She currently participates in four H2020 projects including HBM4EU (Joint Programme), ERA PLANET (ERA NET), ICARUS, Interwaste (RISE) ot ACTRIS PPP. She was an executive director of the CETOCOEN and CETOCOEN UP projects from the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF, Operation Programme Research and Development for Innovations) and number of national projects from the Czech Research Foundation and the Technology Agency. Currently she coordinates the CETOCOEN PLUS and RECETOX RI projects from the ESIF, Operation Programme Research, Development, Education. She has been actively working at the science-policy interface at the national and international levels acting as an executive secretary of the Regional Centre, member of the international Expert Group supervising implementation of the Global Monitoring Plan under the Stockholm Convention, WHO expert, and Leading partner of the GEO Initiative GOS4POPs (Global Observation System for Persistent Organic Pollutants). She has published more than 170 WoS papers, has > 3000 cits, h-index 34. As a coordinator of the Twinning project she will be responsible for the overall implementation of the project.

RNDr. Ondřej Mikeš, Ph.D.

Project innovation mananger

is a post-doc researcher experienced in the environmental chemistry and epidemiology. His main expertise is environmental epidemiology currently working on the exposure data from the Czech and Slovak longitudinal cohort ELSPAC. Recently he was a trainee at the National Institute of Public Health in Oslo, Norway. Other field of expertise is an assessment of dietary exposure, which he also teaches at university and for broader public audience. He was a project member of several international and national projects (e.g. ArcRISK, FluviSOIL) and he is currently national coordinator for Horizon 2020 project ICARUS and project team member of the SMURBS and HMB4EU Horizon 2020 projects. He is responsible for the collection of all city relevant data (traffic, air quality, greenery…) and also the main negotiator and partner for the regional authorities in both projects and other city-based programs (e.g. Improving the air quality in the city, Sustainability mobility plan, Strategic visions for 2050). He published 10 WoS papers, has > 100 cits, h-index 5. In the Twinning project, he will be responsible for the collection and evaluation of the urban external exposure and epidemiological data.

Mgr. Katarína Řiháčková, Ph.D.

is a specialist at RECETOX experienced in human exposure assessment with the emphasis on dermal exposure, human toxicokinetics (including experimental and computational approaches), human biomonitoring and internal exposure. She participated in research This proposal version was submitted by projects founded by Czech Science Foundation and Technology Agency of the Czech Republic. She is currently focused on high-throughput biomonitoring of levels of DNA damage, methylation and repair in human population within CETOCOEN PLUS project (ESIF, Operation Programme Research and Development for Innovations). She is supervisor of 3 Master degree students of Ecotoxicology and Environmental Chemistry and author of 8 WoS publications, 14 citations without self-citations, h-index 3.

Mgr. Jana Navrátilová, Ph.D.

received her Ph.D. from Brno University of Technology, Faculty of Chemistry. Prior joining RECETOX she worked as an expert scientist at U.S. Environmental Protection Agency at the National Exposure Research Laboratory, investigating the human health risks associated with emerging environmental contaminants and consumer product consumptions. While a postdoctoral researcher at University of Vienna she was involved in several EU FP7 projects (SUN, Nanolyse). She is the recipient of several prestigious awards including the U.S. National Research Council Award and Fulbright scholarship. She has published 13 WoS papers, 2 book chapters and has 233 citations, her H-index is 8.

Lisa Emily Melymuk, Ph.D.

is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Chemistry at the RECETOX Centre, with expertise in chemical compounds in indoor and outdoor environments, their link with human exposure assessment, and linking measurement, data analysis and modeling techniques to better understand chemical exposure pathways. She received her Ph.D. from University of Toronto, Canada in 2012, focusing on outdoor urban environmental pollution, followed by a postdoctoral research position at the RECETOX Centre from 2012-2018 with a focus on contamination in indoor environments. She has undertaken recent research secondments to University of Toronto, and NILU-Norwegian Institute for Air Research, and is an active member of the NORMAN Working Group on emerging substances in the indoor environment, maintaining strong links to collaborators in the field in both Europe and North America. She currently participates in two H2020 projects (HBM4EU and Interwaste-RISE). She has 40 WoS papers, >1000 citations, and an h-index of 17.

Ing. Jan Ostřížek, Ph.D.

is the Head of External relations at RECETOX responsible for implementation of the RECETOX research and development strategy and the strategic projects in the Centre. He holds a PhD in Finance - focus on PPP projects and EU politics and public finance and is author and co-author of several books and other publications. During his studies he conducted several internships within the EU and USA. In his previous positions he was the researcher, lecturer (e.g. he developed and lectured the courses themed on practical issues of Czech presidency of the EU for The Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs, The Zlín Region, The Energy Regulatory Office, The Office for the Protection of Competition) and project manager and administrator. In his previous position at CEITEC BUT he was responsible for development and running of the Science Support Office (15 FTE). In the Twinning project he will be responsible for development of the scientific network and communication.