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Research inspired by personal experience: MU researchers win prestigious grant

The Czech Science Foundation has selected two young Masaryk University researchers to receive the prestigious JUNIOR STAR grant for promising researchers shortly after their postgraduate studies.

The fourth year of the public competition in the field of research, development and innovation for the support of JUNIOR STAR grants, announced by the Czech Science Foundation, was open to basic researchers who have obtained a Ph.D. degree or its equivalent no more than eight years before the announcement of the competition. The expected duration of the project starting from 1 January 2025 is five years.

From Masaryk University, the JUNIOR STAR grant was awarded to David Bednář from the Faculty of Science and Oksana Yuriyivna Stupak from the Faculty of Education.

Hope for stroke patients

David Bednář’s team is embarking on an ambitious project to develop a new generation of drugs to treat stroke. “For us, the JUNIOR STAR grant means, above all, security in the form of long-term funding. It’s quite a large grant and the five-year time frame is really great. We can now concentrate fully on research without having to apply for other grants,” said David Bednář, for whom the research also has a personal dimension – his grandfather was one of the many victims of this condition.

Stroke is a leading cause of death and disability. It is caused by blood clots that block blood flow to the brain. A drug called alteplase is currently used to dissolve these clots. “Alteplase is a common enzyme in the human body. The problem is that it is not effective enough to dissolve large clots in the brain. It also has serious side effects as it can cause bleeding,” he explained. Another problem is the time window for administering the drug. “We only have a therapeutic window of four hours. If the patient does not see a doctor within this time, the negative effects of the drug outweigh the positive ones and the drug can no longer be administered,” Bednář adds.

Bednář’s team, which is part of Loschmidt Laboratories, has adopted a unique two-pronged strategy. “Our research stands on two independent legs. The first focuses on improving the existing alteplase to make it safer and more effective. The second focuses on a more affordable staphylokinase,” explains Bednář.

Staphylokinase is a bacterial protein and is much cheaper to produce than alteplase. However, it has its problems – the body produces antibodies against it because it is not naturally occurring in the body. Scientists are therefore trying to reduce its immunogenicity, i.e. the immune system’s reaction to the protein, while at the same time increasing its efficiency in forming a complex with plasmin, which should lead to better clot dissolution.

What makes this research exceptional is the comprehensive approach to it within the Stroke Brno consortium. “Thanks to the collaboration at Loschmidt Laboratories, our team includes experts in fields ranging from bioinformatics and artificial intelligence to structural biology and enzyme kinetics. The connection to Stroke Brno allows us to move from the molecular level to cells or living organisms,” says Bednář about the uniqueness of the project, in which he plans to use computer simulations, laboratory experiments and veterinary testing. “The collaboration with Professor Mikulík, who brings in direct experience from clinical practice in stroke treatment, is also very valuable.”

Scientists around the world are working to develop new drugs to treat stroke, but success is not guaranteed. “It’s something a lot of people have worked on. Quite often, interesting variants of proteins are found but prove ineffective in clinical trials. For success, significant improvements are needed, not just minor tweaks,” Bednář suggests.

Although the five-year project does not aim to develop a finished drug, the young researcher has already had his first successes in the project. “We have a variant that could be significantly safer,” says the hopeful researcher, who particularly values teamwork in his work. “I have amazing scientists and students around me with a huge interest in research. It is a pleasure to work with them.”

A personal story gives rise to research for better education

The second JUNIOR STAR grant at Masaryk University was awarded to Oksana Yuriyivna Stupak from the Faculty of Education, whose personal story is intertwined with her research. In March 2022, she had to leave war-torn Ukraine with her two young children to start a new life in the Czech Republic. It was this experience that led her to embark on research that could change the way Czech schools approach the integration of children from abroad. 

“As a mother I wanted to help my children adapt to school and as a researcher I was interested in finding out about the situation in schools because of the large number of Ukrainian children. Their number in Czech schools is still high, and new children are arriving all the time, so I think it is necessary to study the integration of Ukrainian children in schools,” says the young researcher.

Her five-year research project, which has just begun, has the ambitious goal of mapping and evaluating how Czech schools manage the integration of Ukrainian children and identifying factors affecting inclusion in Czech schools, including for the integration of children from other countries. “It is a dynamic process that deserves systematic research,” explains Oksana Yuriyivna Stupak.

With a team of five experts from the Department of Education, she will focus on four primary schools in Brno, where the team will conduct observations and interviews with principals, teachers, Ukrainian and Czech children and their parents. “We plan to conduct six interviews in each school, separately with parents and children. We are also planning a questionnaire survey among teachers in the South Moravian Region who have experience working with Ukrainian children.”

In the first phase, which will last until December 2025, the research team will conduct focus groups with classroom teachers and a follow-up questionnaire survey of teachers in the South Moravian Region. The next phase, from January 2026 to June 2027, will include interviews with key stakeholders and unstructured observations of lessons, breaks and extracurricular activities. The final phase of the project, from July 2027 to December 2028, will be devoted to data analysis, publication and presentation of results at conferences.

“The grant means a great responsibility for me personally, but it is also an opportunity to explore a topic that concerns me personally and to gain new experience in carrying out prestigious research projects,” Stupak revealed. She plans to use the funds for the work of the research team, publishing articles and other expenses related to the implementation of the research. “The research on the current situation and the changes that have taken place in schools over the last two years will help identify factors affecting integration in Czech schools, not only for Ukrainian children, but also for immigrants in general,” Stupak concludes.

The author is a student at the Faculty of Social Studies and an intern at M Magazine.