I started to enjoy biology and chemistry in high school. I had an excellent teacher who awakened my interest in living nature. After that, I became attracted to everything that was related to matter, substances and their reactions. In high school, I regularly participated in biology and chemistry competitions, but that was not enough, so I visited the Institute of Experimental Biology and attended correspondence seminars as part of my high school professional activities. Later, I took part in the youth clubs offered by the Bioskop science education centre of Masaryk University. I attended the DNA Club and the Chemistry Club, which still exist today. Thanks to the Explosion seminar, which had weekend and summer camps, I found myself in the RECETOX laboratories for the first time.
When I was deciding what I wanted to study at the end of high school, I considered molecular biology. In the end, I discovered the Environmental Health Sciences program at Masaryk University´s Faculty of Science, which combines chemistry, biology, biomedicine and also deals with environmental issues, which exactly met my expectations.
From the lab to the iGEM World Competition
At the beginning of my studies, I found an internship in a research group at the RECETOX centre, and I really liked the environment there. I am researching substances that disrupt our hormonal system. In my bachelor thesis, I optimized a method by which we can separate these endocrine disruptors from, for example, a water sample. Analytical chemists are thus better able to determine the composition of mixtures found in the environment and can more easily detect which chemical compounds have the potential to disrupt the hormonal system. I like the fact that the approach of the teachers at RECETOX is friendly, and one can ask them for advice and help without fear.
With my colleagues from Biochemistry, Molecular Biology and Environment from Masaryk University, I am part of the iGEM Brno team that is participating in the global iGEM Competition this year. We entered the largest synthetic biology competition with a project to help address inefficient nitrogen fertiliser management. Specifically, we are looking at the cultivation and genetic modification of the world´s smallest flowering plant, the periwinkle or frogweed. In the team, I meet people from different fields and schools, including technologists from Brno University of Technology who are working on making a larger apparatus for cultivating periwinkle.
I am a lecturer at Bioscope and at the RECETOX summer school.
I started working at the Bioskop science teaching centre, which shaped me in high school, right after I started at the Faculty of Science at Masaryk University. In popularising science as a lecturer, I meet children from the age of six, to whom I have the opportunity to show the practical side of biology and chemistry. With younger children, we have to have a program built so that they can play and experiment. For example, the Bioscope 6+ courses focus on exploring the properties of water, learning about the cell and exploring opposites. Working with children in Key Stage 1 is a great experience for me, although it requires being alert and having a lot of energy. Lately, however, I´ve been focusing on middle schoolers because they have a deeper interest in science, they ask questions, they discuss, and they are excited to get into the lab because their school doesn't usually offer that. My favourite Bioscope 16+ course is PCR - Practical Copying by Hand. There, students learn how the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) works, which is a method for rapidly propagating DNA. In the lab, they are given a complete set of different chemicals and DNA to mix. We then demonstrate how the reaction works using a PCR cycler, and finally we do electrophoresis together. I find it inspiring and rewarding to work with young people, and it is possible that some of them will be my future colleagues.
One of the holiday courses that Bioskop organises is a summer school, which is held right at RECETOX, where I study. It´s a five-day program where we first prepare the participants theoretically and then run a set of experiments with them. That´s where I taught ecotoxicology to high school students this year. We investigated the toxicity of ethanol to mustard and small freshwater crustaceans. As a lecturer, I also have the opportunity to regularly promote science at Science Night and the Science Festival.
University life and Erasmus
Last semester I studied in Aveiro, Portugal, as part of the Erasmus programme. I was lucky enough to take a course on indoor air quality measurement or environmental management, plus free Portuguese language classes. Aveiro is a city on the west coast where surfing is abundant, and I learned this at the local surf school. The Erasmus organisers regularly arranged interesting activities for us, one of which was volunteering at a dog shelter. In addition, I visited Porto, about an hour away, several times, with lots of wonderful historical sites, and my friends from Masaryk University who were at the same time at Erasmus in Coimbra.
Since studying environmental chemistry and toxicology is demanding, I try to balance it with other activities in my free time. For example, I used to do improvisational theatre, go dancing in different styles, and now I regularly go out into nature to enjoy the tranquility and beautiful views of the countryside. That's also why I've become very fond of hiking in the mountains.
My studies will be over in two years, so I would like to continue my PhD studies and in my spare time continue to popularise science. As I am interested in researching the safety of substances that are newly coming onto the market in the European Union, I could work at a university or in the private sector in the future.