Tomáš Fiala is graduate of the Faculty of Science, MU and to Brno returns after ten years abroad. Doctoral studies completed at Columbia University in New York and then moved to ETH Zürich.
In his new research group, which he establishes at the Department of Chemistry of the Faculty of Science, he wants to focus on possibilities how to reveal the origin of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease, especially on what role in their origin play inflammations in the brain. He will develop chemical probes that will help not only with elucidating the origin of diseases but also with new possibilities of their treatment.
Specifically, he will focus on proteoforms, which are millions of variants of proteins that arise in the human body from approximately 70,000 proteins that a person can synthesize. These proteins assemble into complexes or are modified so that they can in different types of cells fulfill diverse functions. Their deregulation, i.e., change in proper functioning, is then related to many diseases including neurodegenerative diseases. Tomáš Fiala wants to develop so-called PROTEOFORMERS, chemical substances that are able to recognize the target protein and bring to it functional molecules enabling either blocking of the respective proteoform or switching between proteoforms so that the body starts to work properly.
According to Tomáš Fiala it is a new chemistry for manipulating proteoforms, which goes beyond the current possibilities. “This concept represents a chemical solution to long-term biological challenges, which by traditional methods are unsolvable,” he emphasizes the contribution of his research.
Winning the ERC Starting Grant now changes everything for him. “When I at the end of last year won the competition for the position of Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, MUNI, I was looking forward to returning home after ten years abroad. I had the idea that I would slowly begin building a research group – if lucky, with one or two PhD students and my head full of ideas that simply there would not be time for quickly. With the ERC Starting Grant it will be a completely different story. I will be able to employ several postdoctoral researchers immediately and the start will be rather rocket-like. I now have certainty of generous funding for five years, which gives me peace and stability that not every research group has – especially in their beginning,” says about his success Tomáš Fiala, who also in June obtained support for establishing his research group from the Czech Experientia Foundation and he also succeeded in the internal competition of the Masaryk University Grant Agency for the MASH StG/CoG grant, thanks to which he will have an additional three million crowns to finance his scientific work from 2026 to 2029.
“All this will allow me to fully immerse myself in work. I also hope that thanks to the ERC grant my research will be more visible in the world and will support the already good reputation of the Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science, MUNI in world science,” adds the young chemist.
Tomáš Fiala is among 478 young researchers across Europe who succeeded in the call for ERC Starting Grant and obtained support totaling 761 million euros. Scientists sent 3,928 proposals to the competition and only 12 percent of them were selected for funding. Supported experts will receive from the Starting Grant 1.5 million euros for a period of up to five years.