Miss BioPhys

The next step after postdoc is scary to make. Keep fingers crossed!

Boiling nasty bacteria in soap water. It's Bacteria killing day!

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the deadliest bacteria on Earth. I feed it, I grow it, I kill it, and extract only outer layers to study how antibiotics get to their target inside the bacteria.

Unusual antibiotic killing mechanism we just published in Nature.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05019-y

This is the first star from my research on antibiotics that I started at my postdoc in the Netherlands. More are coming out soon! The very first star was published in Nature, the most read journal in life sciences. I am in scientific heaven!

Unusual antibiotic killing mechanism we just published in Nature Our study about the unusual molecular mechanism behind the antibiotic activity of teixobactin can be read open access here:  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05019-y Figure: The target of...

Awesome science + Awesome people = Awesome meeting.

Awesome science + Awesome people = Awesome meeting. Awesome science + Awesome people = Awesome meeting. International Membrane Biophysics Meeting 2022 in Drübeck, Germany.

After 2 years, 6 months, and 9 days at my postdoctoral position, the very first article proving my new expertise was finally accepted for publication.
Sometimes it just takes time. A lot of time.

Back home from our Christmas visit in the Czech Republic.

No matter how busy we are with the family visits, there’s always time for a book store to get original Czech books as well as Czech translations.

It’s our way to keep in touch with our native tongue and teach our kids to read in it while living in the Netherlands.

Today is my day to be the researcher of the day at the Advent Calendar of my institute at the University of Groningen, Netherlands.
https://www.rug.nl/research/zernike/news/newsitems/20211202-advent-day2

“Meet Dr. Adéla Melcrová, postdoc in the Molecular Biophysics group.is working on an exciting topic: the working mechanism of novel antibiotics. She visualizes the disrupting effects of the most promising antibiotics in development on the surface layers of bacteria with classical and high-speed atomic force microscopy. By getting information on the stability of the bacterial surface and pairing these experiments with computer simulations the working mechanism on the molecular level can be unraveled.” — Zernike Institute for Advanced Materials announcement at Linkedin https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6872067733765328896/.

Advent calendar - December 2nd - Dr. Adéla Melcrová Advent calendar - December 2nd - Dr. Adéla Melcrová

A week ago I started reading Storytelling with data by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic. It’s a really good read but it’s focused on bussiness and visualization of much more simple data sets than there usually are in science.

Today, I was surprised how much it helped when preparing the design of a scientific poster! Some parts needed to get more contrast to stand out. Some graphs were necessarily complicated. Some parts needed to get dimmer not to compete for attention with the actual interesting stuff. The headlines shall be already short stories and not only descriptive like “Results” or “Conclusions”…

Really recommend the book not only for bussiness but also academic presentations! Let’s build the skills to “Create our own miracle”, exactly as the mug says.

Unpredictable journey of a garden snail... and of us all.

It occurs to me that all journeys through life are twisted and not possible to predict.🐌

The same applies to your journey through career and studies. Whatever you choose to study at the age of 18 and whatever your idea of your future emplyment might be, it will almost for sure be wastly different from what your vision will be at 25 and what you will actually do at 30.

At 20 I started university studies of Physics to become a meteorologist. I wanted to work as a weather forecaster. In the Czech Republic. It never occurred to me that I might become a scientist! It never occurred to me that I might live abroad from my home country.

And now? I am 32, I have a PhD in Biophysics and Chemical Physics, I have won three personal grants or prizes for my research, and now I work on topics, which are going to be published in journals like Nature Materials, Nature Methods, and even Nature itself. I moved to the Netherlands almost 3 years ago and I am happy here.

I mean... who could have predicted or planned that?

I just registered as a mentor to support fellow mothers in STEM.

If my experience in being an academic and a mother of two can help others, I will be more than happy to help. It’s not easy to balance the workload, care of the children, time with your family, and time for your hobbies and interests. I also sometimes struggle and become stressed and grumpy. I also felt guilty when returning to work that I do not spend enough time with my babies. Was I a good enough mother? A good enough researcher? Partner? I went through these things and I will gladly help others who are in need of guidance.

If you are also keen to help as a mentor, or you need the mentoring yourself, don’t hesitate to register! Maybe you know somebody who would make a brilliant mentor? Send them the link so they could help.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6828360788621836288/

Mothers in Science on LinkedIn: #mentoring #leadership #career We are excited to have received so many applications for our mentoring program, but this also means we need more mentors to support all these wonderful...

Researcher’s dream come true vol.02! 🥳🥂🍾

My research papers were already cited in 200 scientific studies!

My first paper was out in 2012. It took 8 years for my work to be recognized in the form of 100 citations.

It took 1.5 years to get the second hundred. So guys, it takes time! Scientific recognition as any other form of work recognition just does not appear in a few months. My work was cited in 200 scientific studies, but still I do not believe that many people in my work area recognize my name. This will take even more time and efforts. But I believe I will get there.

This achievement assures me that the science I do is good and useful and motivates me to keep going, be positive, and work for it.

Experimental therapy extended lifespan of mice by 1/4 🐁

..according to an impressive experimental study published in Nature Communication in June 2021.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-021-23545-7

Overexpression of an important protein SIRT6, which regulates aging and metabolism in mice and humans, lead to lifespan expansion in both male and female mice. It reduced age-related metabolic decline in energy metabolism and inhibited frailty. As such, it controls lifespan and the ability to generate energy at times of its limited availability, such as physical activity, fasting and aging.

I especially adore one of the tests, the researchers performed to observe the vitality of their mice — How eager they are to spontaneously run in a wheel. 😄🐁

Interestingly enough, the same protein is responsible for healthy aging in humans too. If we could think of a drug/food supplement, which would increase the levels of protein SIRT6 in human body, let’s say in people above 50, we could extend the lifespan of people well above 100 years. Cohen Lab of Molecular Mechanism Of Aging in Israel is already working on it.

This research is a brilliant example of how the curiosity driven basic science leads to interesting and important applications.