Heck is internationally recognized as one of the absolute pioneers in the use of mass spectrometry for large-scale protein research (proteomics). He has mentored many students and postdocs, several of them from the Czech Republic.
<h5>You are a perfect example of a modern scientist, excelling in both research and science communication. How did you get started? What was your motivation to share your work with a broader audience?</h5>
My motivation for sharing science comes from being genuinely enthusiastic about my field of research, which can be quite specialised and complex. However, I believe it&#39;s crucial to share this enthusiasm not only with fellow scientists but also with the broader community, including neighbors, younger people and even children. As a scientist studying proteins, I find them fascinating, considering they are prevalent in our bodies and the entire world. My aim is to make more people appreciate the world of proteins by understanding them better.
Regarding my proficiency in science communication, I&#39;m not sure if I am really good. Initially, I found it challenging to effectively convey complex ideas to a broad audience. However, I&#39;ve learned that collaborating with individuals who are genuinely interested in science and experts in other fields like communication or art, can be incredibly helpful. They can play a crucial role in helping translate my scientific messages into presentations, videos, or social media posts. Working together, we bridge the gap between specialised knowledge and public understanding, making science more accessible and engaging for everyone. That&#39;s my motivation and approach to science communication.
<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Forum_Bas_van_Breukelen_Bridging_the_world_of_science_and_everyday_life_f241fc64fc/Forum-Bas-van-Breukelen-Bridging-the-world-of-science-and-everyday-life.jpg" alt="Forum/Bas van Breukelen: Bridging the world of science and everyday life"/>
<h5>I really like the way you connect science and art. That you together with artists try to communicate your research in an innovative way, for example using dance. How did that start?</h5>
I generally think that science and art are not so different and both try to make or see something that&#39;s really beautiful. In our case, if you see how a living cell works, it&#39;s really beautiful. It is as beautiful as seeing a painting of Rembrandt. However, when you look at the painting of Rembrandt or when you look at the cell, it&#39;s not only about looking at it, it&#39;s also about interpreting. Both science and art tell stories behind what we see.
If you connect with artists who are on that same wavelength as you then it works. In making these dance movies, I was lucky to get connected with a team of young video artists who were really interested in science. And I just told them a story about what I study and what I really like, and then I gave them almost full freedom to make an interpretation. And they came up with ideas, we came up with ideas and then together we made something which is neither just art nor just a scientific publication, but it&#39;s something in between.
I quite like the fact that many more people saw that movie than have read my papers and I also feel that quite a few more people took something from that movie. Because I&#39;m not sure if the general public takes a lot from our papers. So I see it as a fun thing to do, which also provides added value making science more accessible.
<h5>Is it challenging to find the right balance between scientific accuracy and art?</h5>
It is and it isn&#39;t. The simple answer is yes, it&#39;s difficult. But if you start to think longer about it, you know, we scientists, when we have written a paper or report, we think this is the ground truth and that it will be valid for the next 50 years or so. And then next year, someone else makes a new measurement or a new discovery and comes up with a new interpretation. Even science itself is fact-based understanding. When you move into a more arty presentation of your science, you have to compromise because proteins are not visible by eye and so on. You need to make cartoons that show how they might look, which is close to reality, but not the real reality. So you have to make compromises. But if that means that more people get an idea and an understanding of what you want to say, then I think it&#39;s not so difficult to make these compromises.
<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Forum_Bas_van_Breukelen_Heck_s_lab_2ea8cc4c34/Forum-Bas-van-Breukelen-Heck's-lab.jpeg" alt="Forum/Bas van Breukelen: Heck&#39;s lab"/>
<h5>Do you think that every scientist should communicate their research to the general public?</h5>
No, I think the science community should, but every person is different and you should not force every scientist to do science communication. But I think you should value when you have at your institute or in your group people who want to do it. And I think it&#39;s also extremely good to collaborate with people who are bridging the world of science and everyday life, who help scientists express their results to the general public in the most effective and engaging way. Some scientists are not good at science communication themselves but even their messages should be communicated. 
<h5>You are also very active on <a href="https://twitter.com/hecklab">Twitter</a>. What&#39;s your motivation? Do you know how much time you spend on Twitter?</h5>
I think my motivation is not so different from many people that are on Twitter. Of course, it costs a bit of time. But I see many benefits. Sometimes I pick up things from Twitter that make me start to read the paper that I otherwise would not have read, or I hear about developments that I otherwise would not have heard about. And it&#39;s sort of broadening your network. However, you should also realise there is a bias. You don&#39;t reach everyone and not everyone reaches you, but it&#39;s just a fun way to keep connected with other scientists and maybe also with beyond science. 
<h5>I know you really value diversity. Your team consists of many nationalities and types of expertise. Is this multidisciplinary approach the key to success?</h5>
The simple answer is yes. My group currently consists of 19 nationalities, several religions and gender classes. It is not the only or mandatory way, but I think for my group and for my science it really helps to have people from different backgrounds from different cultures, scientific expertise or social skills. They get along very well.
And I think when people leave the group, they have learned something in science, but they have also learned lessons in life. And maybe that&#39;s even better - a Chinese person learns from an American person and vice-versa or a chemist learns from a biologist and vice versa. This is very inspiring and enriching.
If you stay the whole life in the village where you were born and you only see that, you think that&#39;s normal. And I have learned that in the world, everyone thinks that their life is normal. But there are many different normals in the world and everything has its good and bad things. And I must say from my own experience that I have learned most about my own country while traveling abroad. Because you start to learn how your own country looks from the perspective of other countries and other cultures.
<h5>How important is networking for scientists and how do you build your own network? Do you have any tips or recommendations?</h5>
A good network is crucial. What I&#39;ve learned over the years is that the personal click is very important and you might have a scientist that may be the perfect fit in expertise, but if you don&#39;t like each other, then it&#39;s difficult. As a scientist, you may click with people all over the world. It doesn&#39;t need to be someone in your department. Science is a global thing, and that&#39;s the good thing about it.
What I really like about mass spectrometry is that we sometimes can help other scientists and of course, it makes you happy, but the real benefit for me is free education. Because if I talk to a neuroscientist, I will learn about neurology, if I talk to a physical chemist, I will hear about physical chemistry and so on. When you give something, you always get something back and I think this helps your own development and enriches your research. So I would recommend escaping our own ivory tower and start networking.
<h5>Many Czechs have worked in your group. Do you also collaborate with any Czech groups?</h5>
Yes, there were many Czech students or postdocs. And it is bad to generalize but I must say that all of them were smart and hardworking. In the last five years, I have been coordinating an European large-scale proteomic program. In this program we try to involve people from many countries, so there are also several Czech groups involved. The program is really nice because we get money to let people move from one lab to another and share information and knowledge. So it doesn&#39;t mean that we see each other every day, but we certainly have these connections.
<blockquote>
<h5>The trio of Czechs in Heck&#39;s lab</h5>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Jan Fiala (left) is a postdoc working on the development and application of mass spectrometry techniques for the study of archaeal organisms living in extreme environments such as hydrothermal vents or the Dead Sea. He received his PhD from the Faculty of Science of Charles University under the supervision of Petr Novák in 2021.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Marta Siborová is a second-year postdoc in Heck&#39;s team. She uses cryo-electron microscopy to map interactions between human viruses and antibodies. She studied at Masaryk University in Brno. Her PhD thesis supervisor was structural virologist Pavel Plevka, who is currently also the director of CEITEC.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Tereza Kadavá completed her Master&#39;s studies at the Faculty of Science of Charles University under a supervision of Petr Novák last year. As a PhD student in Heck&#39;s lab, she uses mass spectrometry-based techniques to study blood serum glycoproteins.</li>
</ul>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Forum_Bas_van_Breukelen_The_trio_of_Czechs_in_Heck_s_lab_bef263276d/Forum-Bas-van-Breukelen-The-trio-of-Czechs-in-Heck's-lab.jpeg" alt="Forum/Bas van Breukelen: The trio of Czechs in Heck&#39;s lab"/>
</blockquote>
<h5>I read a few interviews with you and in one of them you mentioned that you are proud of watching young people come into your group, get trained, grow and mature. Do you know the statistics? How many scientists have you trained?</h5>
It depends. It always has to be nuanced, because who did I train? But just to give you a few numbers, in the 25 years that I&#39;ve been here, my lab has had over 100 PhD students graduating, about 75 postdocs and of course a lot of master students. We still have a network of alumni and about every five years we try to get everyone back. But they are all over the world now, some of them have remained in academia and are professors now, which I&#39;m proud of, but I&#39;m equally proud of alumni who work in industry or went into teaching.
When people ask me how I manage this group, I typically say I don&#39;t. And that it&#39;s the group that manages itself. Sometimes you can give a little shift here and a little direction there, but you have to get an atmosphere where people get trained by their buddy next to them and are in turn training other people. So the training is not something I can really put on my personal record, but I&#39;m proud of my group.
<h5>I also liked the fact that your next big question is what we can answer with mass spectrometry. Could you be more specific? What&#39;s your current next question?</h5>
My research has focused on mass spectrometry and you might say &#39;Hey, that&#39;s boring&#39; because that technology has already been around for more than 125 years. But I love it because every five years new things arise that maybe none of us who are the experts in the field had expected, which shows how dynamically and quickly this field is still moving. Things that we never thought that would happen are reality now. That we can study single cells with mass spectrometry, the proteome, the metabolome. For me, as a technology nerd, that&#39;s just amazing.
When I started my career, or even 10 years ago, I would have laughed if you had proposed that. I&#39;ve learned not to care about what is or isn&#39;t currently possible. And that&#39;s my message also to scientists: don&#39;t care. Just have visions of what you want to do and maybe one day it will be possible, and ideally you will have contributed to making this possible.
<h5>Do you have any other recommendations for young scientists?</h5>
If you&#39;re young, you should consider yourself &#39;a sponge&#39; and you should absorb, absorb, and absorb. Keep a broad perspective, learn about different disciplines. And maybe 20 years later you will really appreciate this knowledge. When you get older your sponge effect becomes weaker and you get stuck in what you were taught or what you believe. And I think staying young is maybe also about remaining such a sponge and being able to absorb things that are out of your comfort zone. So my recommendation is to remain a sponge.
<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Forum_Bas_van_Breukelen_Albert_Heck_from_Utrecht_University_fd0aed31dc/Forum-Bas-van-Breukelen-Albert-Heck-from-Utrecht-University.jpg" alt="Forum/Bas van Breukelen: Albert Heck from Utrecht University"/>
<h5>What does your typical work day look like? Do you have any rituals, such as starting the day by reading the newspaper?</h5>
No, I think it&#39;s a bit boring to tell you the truth. My day starts by checking emails and that takes a lot of time. But I don&#39;t see it only as a burden, of course, since half of the emails are also your network and your information.
If I ask my children, they always say, oh, the only thing he does is drink coffee and talk to other people, which is sort of true. And there is never a typical day because every day is different. But what I find most fun is interacting with the students. But I also like to keep up my network with international scientists, and also with people in industry. So especially at this stage of my career my daily work really is keeping the network going, keeping the infrastructure going. From time to time, I have a sabbatical day where I think about where I want to go with the science of the group, and these are the most joyful moments. But as a leader of a group, there are many other duties to deal with, such as people in your lab having personal issues or problems finding housing or getting a visa, getting recommendations, nor should you underestimate teaching, that&#39;s also quite a bit of your time and it&#39;s important. As a scientist, I find it fun, but you have a lot of different tasks, so I think there&#39;s almost no typical day, and it&#39;s certainly not a routine.
<h5>You&#39;re a very passionate scientist, but if you were not a scientist, what would you be?</h5>
That&#39;s an interesting question. I like nature and I like to run and cycle and I especially like to travel, discovering new places and what people from other nations think but also to learn about myself and my own country. So if I had a free choice, I would be a traveler, I think.
<blockquote>
<h4>Professor Albert Heck</h4>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Albert Heck is a Distinguished Faculty Professor at the Science Faculty of Utrecht University, the Netherlands, and Scientific Director of the Netherlands Proteomics Centre. He studied chemistry at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam and received his PhD in 1993 from the University of Amsterdam. After postdoc positions at Stanford University (US) and the University of Warwick (UK), he was appointed professor at Utrecht University at the age of 33. His group develops and implements innovative mass spectrometric methods for more efficient and detailed characterization of proteins in relation to their biological function, spanning the fields of proteomics, glycoproteomics and structural biology. He has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Spinoza Award of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research. He also received the Sir Hans Krebs Medal during the FEBS conference held in Prague in 2018.
</blockquote>

Bridging the world of science and everyday life

Professor Peter Schoenmakers was named Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion on 28 June 2022. He received this honour for his exceptional achievements in the field of analytical chemistry which earned him international recognition and acclaim. Schoenmakers made a career in industry and science, was one of the founders of the national innovation community COAST and put Amsterdam on the map as an expertise centre in the analytical sciences.
The decoration was presented to Peter Schoenmakers by Annette Groot, deputy mayor of the municipality of ‘Dijk en Waard’, after his valedictory speech marking his emeritus status as a professor of ‘Analytical Chemistry and its applications in Forensic Science’.
<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/University_of_Amsterdam_Royal_Honour_for_Peter_Schoenmakers_Prof_Peter_Schoenmakers_Photo_Jan_Willem_Steenmeijer_Uv_A_208f440794.jpg" alt="University of Amsterdam: Royal Honour for Peter Schoenmakers: Prof. Peter Schoenmakers. Photo: Jan Willem Steenmeijer, UvA"/>
<h4>Unravelling the composition of chemical mixtures</h4>
Peter Schoenmakers has played an important role in developing the principles of chromatography, a separation technique used to unravel mixtures of different substances into their constituent components. Chromatography is considered the &quot;workhorse&quot; of chemical analysis and its applications range from industrial quality analysis to environmental analysis and forensic investigation. Schoenmakers has pioneered the development of comprehensive two-dimensional liquid chromatography (LC×LC), enhancing the separation power from hundreds to thousands of chemical components and of comprehensive two-dimensional gas chromatography (GC×GC), moving from thousands to tens of thousands of components. He has created the concept of spatial three-dimensional liquid chromatography for the separation of a million components, which earned him a prestigious ERC Advanced grant in 2016. This research is ongoing and Schoenmakers will continue to be involved as an emeritus professor.
<h4>An influential scientist</h4>
Schoenmakers was listed several times in the top 10 most influential scientists in his field (The Analytical Scientist Power List) and received many prestigious international awards, notably the Dal Nogare Award (2019) and the Csaba Horváth Memorial Award (2015). In August, he will be presented with the 2022 Award in Chromatography by the American Chemical Society in Chicago. Although Schoenmakers spent only half of his career at the university, he has (co)authored more than 230 scientific publications in leading journals. He supervised the research of 36 PhD students and is an editor for Journal of Chromatography A.
Colleagues praise Schoenmakers&#39; drive to achieve insight and understanding through in-depth research. He also receives much praise for his efforts in the field of academic education. He is an approachable and inspiring professor for his students, and his lectures and presentations excel in both content and entertainment. Schoenmakers inspired many students and was a tireless initiator of talent programs, summer schools and scholarship schemes.
<h4>Analytical Chemistry in the Netherlands</h4>
As a professor, Schoenmakers led the analytical-chemistry team in Amsterdam towards national recognition as a centre of expertise for analytical sciences in The Netherlands. He maintains a very extensive network of international, industrial and academic contacts that he uses to further develop analytical chemistry in the Netherlands. Schoenmakers has been one of the instigators of COAST, the public-private Community of Innovation in Analytical Science and Technology in The Netherlands. As its education director he has created programs to stimulate analytical-science studies, with support for education amounting to more than 300,000 € annually.
<h4>Royal commendation ‘Knight of the Order of the Netherlands Lion’</h4>
This royal commendation is one of the oldest and highest civil honours in the Netherlands. King Willem I established the Order on 29 September, 1815. Candidates who have made an exceptional contribution to society, especially in science, art, sports and literature, are eligible for this honour.
The valedictory speech of Peter Schoenmakers can be viewed at the <a href="https://webcolleges.uva.nl/Mediasite/Play/947782a92890404486ade32ecf6f9a851d">UvA weblectures website</a>.

Royal Honour for Peter Schoenmakers

One of the <a href="https://marie-sklodowska-curie-actions.ec.europa.eu/actions/postdoctoral-fellowships">Marie Sklodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-FP)</a> schemes that supports the training of early career scientists with an emphasis on comprehensive professional and career development helped <a href="https://www.ceitec.eu/william-shakespeare-morton-ph-d/u94475">William S. Morton</a> from <a href="https://vacha.ceitec.cz">Robert Vácha’s research group</a> to fund his research at <a href="https://lcms.labrulez.com/companies/36">CEITEC</a> Masaryk University. The new call for MSCA-FP applications opens on April 10, 2024, so we wanted to learn first-hand from both William and Robert about pros and cons of this funding and find out more about this young American scientist’s motivations to do science in Brno, as William travelled across half of Europe from his last posting, and money did not play a major role.
<h5>William, when we met you told me you were doing “fake biology” and “fake physics”. Can you explain what you mean by “fake”?</h5>
If we wanted to see what happens when we drop a plate of spaghetti on the floor, we could use pasta. Instead, we could use pieces of string that are the same size, or maybe cut up elastic bands. These wouldn’t be the same as using pasta, but it would be an approximation. We could then control the conditions by tuning the exact length or material. My job is similar. Scientists at CEITEC perform a lot of cutting-edge research on proteins, and I make representations to isolate a specific property. Then we figure out if theories about our fake proteins are comparable to the real thing.
<h5>How did your journey to Brno and CEITEC begin?</h5>
I came here for an internship in 2022, during peak COVID times. My supervisor had worked with Robert when they were both at Cambridge and thought he would be the expert to help me with some computer simulations. Later, Robert mentioned the possibility of me coming to CEITEC for a postdoc. I was halfway through writing up my thesis when we called for the interview. We talked for a while and eventually I asked when he would like me to start this project. We were chatting on Thursday, and he said, ‘Monday would be great’. I thought he was kidding; he wasn&#39;t.
 Robert Vácha: Recommendations within the scientific community are extremely important. I always try to find new members of my group through someone I can rely on to recommend a good candidate. At that time, William was working with Stefano Angioletti-Uberti, who was doing simulations with polymers and nanoparticles. William had become interested in nanoparticles in contact with membranes and we have a lot of experience with that. Stefano put us in touch so that William could learn how to simulate such systems and so he came to us for an internship. A year later, we were starting a project in which the experiments were already done but the simulations with a model at the level William was working on were missing. Therefore, he was an ideal candidate and it was also an opportunity for him to get involved in an already running project. But we needed to get the simulations done as soon as possible, so I was in a hurry for his arrival.
<h5>What was the one thing that made you decide to come to Brno?</h5>
There were multiple aspects: The first one was being able to work continuously with Robert and his group, a collection of fantastic scientists. I already knew that I liked the culture and environment around Brno, everything here is very accessible, and there’s plenty of outdoor activities. The last aspect was that moving here terrified me. To put myself in the middle of a whole bunch of real biologists who are all speaking Czech? But eventually I thought, ‘cool, I think I can do this’.
<h5>At what point did the MSCA funding come into play?</h5>
It will likely come in May, I&#39;ve not signed the contract yet, the European Union still has it. But to be precise, my research will be funded by European Research Agency (ERA) as part of the Horizon Wider Area Talents program. The MSCA-PF reviewers give your grant a score from 0–100. If your score is above the cutoff for the category you’ve applied to, you earn the MSCA. This year for life sciences, the cutoff was 94.4%. If you receive above 90% on an application for the Czech Republic (the exact value varies in each area), then your grant will be funded by the ERA as part of the Horizon Wider Area Talents program. And that was my case.
<h5>How did you learn about the MSCA grant?</h5>
As soon as Robert hired me, he mentioned this. He had so many ideas of things that I could do. He pushes his group to do more for ourselves, and for CEITEC – like developing and teaching courses. It’s a great quality in a supervisor because it&#39;s hard to remember to care about all of those things at the same time, so it’s good to be reminded.
Robert Vácha: There were several reasons why I recommended the MSCA-FP grant to William. First, the MSCA-FP grant is a &quot;brand&quot;, so in addition to getting funding for his own research, the grant is a visible item on any scientist&#39;s CV, and second, it gives a young scientist a taste of what grant writing is like (and writing a first grant is always the most difficult). William and I talked about the time it would cost him, but I knew it would be time well invested because I was convinced that William had a very good chance of getting the funding. In addition to his talent and knowledge, I knew he would be a great fit for the group on a personal level. That&#39;s why I&#39;m thrilled that he has received the grant and will be able to work with us here. After all, my goal is not only to have a group of great scientists, but to make a great team that will be a pleasure to work with.
<h5>Was it difficult to administer the application?</h5>
Actually, I wasn&#39;t going to apply for the grant, originally. I didn&#39;t have enough time because I started this position while finishing my PhD. I also didn&#39;t know if I would still want to be here after a year. Then a week before the deadline, I was applying for a different grant, and thought I was already writing one anyways – so I wrote it up quickly and e-mailed the grant office. Thankfully the grant office wasn’t too mad at me, but I know it put them under extra pressure. But the whole team there is amazing, and I’m still thanking them for helping me out.
<h5>What will be covered by the funding besides your relocation?</h5>
It covers my salary, which is probably the most important part for researchers considering this grant. But the great thing is you get a pool of resource money for research. With computer simulations, it can be easy to build something bespoke: custom. When it comes time to purchase something, say a peptide, that could mean that it is expensive. Having your own resources allows you to make these purchases, without the fear that your experiment may take away funds from someone else&#39;s.
Along the way, we can also help support master students who work for us by giving them some stipend. It&#39;s something that we can do to help the community at CEITEC – bring in master students to start learning these skills.
<h5>What are the requirements you must fulfill for the funding?</h5>
To meet the requirements, I must make good on everything I promised in my application. Writing the grant feels like a fever dream, so I had to look up what I wrote once I got the news. Apparently, I promised to publish three papers but also share my research at various levels throughout the scientific and local community. Reaching out to the local community is much harder but so much more worth it, and CEITEC offers a lot of opportunities for that. I think that is going to be the goal that I care about the most. I&#39;m really excited about the Sip of Science events in TED-talk style here at CEITEC MUNI. Me and my other colleagues were already talking about how to put our research into simple terms because that is the key to a good scientific speaker. And that, I think, is often unfortunately the last thing on anyone&#39;s priority list.
I also leaned into one of the stated goals for the horizon project, which is translation to industry. Opening this type of communication can be difficult in practice but is also part of my engineering background, so it doesn’t feel uncomfortable. I’m excited to start a project from scratch with the intention of making it translatable to an industrial field. Usually that’s an afterthought. I think this helped to set my application apart from the others.
<h5>Is being “different” an advantage for getting a grant?</h5>
In every example I saw, the focus is always on the scientific part, which intuitively makes sense. But there are other questions to consider: Is the research impacted by any gender issues? Do underrepresented populations have any place in your research? These aspects tend to get marginalized. I tried to produce arguments for how my research could impact and recognize different people. This is the hardest part to write because you want to be genuine but not pandering. I sent this part to most of my friends, academics or not, just to get as much feedback as possible. Getting their feedback won’t hurt, and even if there’s nothing you can change, you can at least be aware.

Scientists should ask themself what impact science has on different people, says applicant for prestigious MSCA-FP funding

Scientists believe a buildup of the brain protein amyloid beta plays a key role in the death of neurons, which can lead to Alzheimer’s disease. Although most people develop some amyloid beta brain proteins as they age, researchers suspect abnormal forms of the protein of may be key to the development of Alzheimer’s.
Researchers at The University of Texas at Arlington have developed the first methods to identify and characterize all the various irregular forms of amyloid beta, adding another valuable piece to the search for the exact causes of Alzheimer’s. Their findings are published in two peer-reviewed studies: <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-38788-1">Nature’s Scientific Reports</a> and <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00216-023-04958-3">Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry</a>.
“Aberrant amyloid beta proteins can alter brain chemistry, creating a big problem when developing medications and immunotherapies to slow the progression of Alzheimer’s disease,” said Daniel W. Armstrong, the lead author on both papers and the Welch Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry. “Our research is the first to describe new methods to identify and characterize the various aberrant forms of amyloid beta. This knowledge may bring us one step closer to halting the progression of this dreaded disease.”
<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/University_of_Texas_at_Arlington_Studies_have_ramifications_for_Alzheimer_s_drug_development_immunotherapies_c0bf3d2190.jpg" alt="University of Texas at Arlington: Studies have ramifications for Alzheimer’s drug development, immunotherapies - Daniel W. Armstrong, the lead author on both papers and the Welch Distinguished Professor of Chemistry and Biochemistry."/>
The abnormal forms of amyloid beta, called epimers and isomers, are difficult to detect as they have the same mass and amino acid sequence as normal forms of the protein. The study in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-38788-1">Scientific Reports</a>, co-authored by Armstrong and UTA graduate student researchers Elizabeth R. Readel, Arzoo Patel, Joshua I. Putman, and Siqi Du, showed that the best way to isolate amyloid beta from the brain was through a technique known as immunoprecipitation.
Many Alzheimer’s medications are monoclonal antibodies that bind to amyloid beta proteins to remove them from the brain and slow the progression of dementia symptoms. However, this research indicated that these medications may not bind as well to the abnormal versions of the amyloid beta cells, which may explain why they are not always effective at slowing progression of the disease.
Meanwhile, the paper in <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00216-023-04958-3">Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry</a> showed that liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry, the most common way of detecting isolated amyloid beta proteins, produces different signals for the normal and aberrant forms of the protein. This makes currents methods of identifying and quantifying it unreliable, unless properly corrected. This study was co-authored by, Readel, Patel, and Umang Dhaubhadel, a graduate teaching assistant.
Both studies were supported by funding from the Robert A. Welch Foundation. Based in Houston, the Welch Foundation is one of the oldest and largest private funding sources for chemistry researchers.
“Together, these results are really encouraging for our quest to better understand Alzheimer’s disease so that we can find better ways to slow it progression and its symptoms,” Armstrong said.

Studies have ramifications for Alzheimer’s drug development, immunotherapies

<a href="https://chemistry.wustl.edu/people/gary-patti">Gary Patti</a>, the Michael and Tana Powell Professor of Chemistry, has been awarded the <a href="https://www.asms.org/about-asms-awards">Biemann Medal</a> from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry for his “pioneering work” in the field of metabolomics, the study of the compounds involved in metabolism.
The ASMS described Patti’s work as “exemplary of how metabolomics should be applied to study biology.” The society also noted that his techniques have become “gold standards in the field.”
The Biemann Medal recognizes “significant achievement in basic or applied mass spectrometry in the early stages of an academic career.” Patti will receive the medal at the <a href="https://lcms.labrulez.com/events/568">ASMS Annual Conference</a> in June, where he will deliver an award lecture.
At WashU, Patti’s lab uses metabolomic approaches to better understand the biology of cells, especially cancer cells. The lab is also committed to developing new laboratory technologies and software to help process exceptionally large volumes of data.
Patti, also a professor of medicine and genetics in the School of Medicine, is the co-lead investigator of a new <a href="https://lcms.labrulez.com/article/3789">National Institutes of Health project</a> that will channel more than $19 million to WashU. The project will focus on multi-omics, an approach that studies cells at multiple levels, including genomics, epigenomics, proteomics, and metabolomics.
“*Without Klaus Biemann’s seminal contributions to the field of mass spectrometry, none of the work that my laboratory does would be possible,” Patti said. “His vision redefined biochemistry, pharmacology, and medicine. It is an incredible honor to be recognized with this prestigious medal in his name.*”

Patti wins medal from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry

Luděk Sehnal: I see the foreign experience as essential. In Australia, I found the scientific topic of a lifetime.

World Water Day is held on 22 March, declared by the UN in 1993 to remind us of the importance of this liquid substance vital for our entire planet. Saying that life on Earth wouldn’t exist without it may be a cliché, but it’s true. Water has been a constant companion of Martin Pivokonský from the Institute of Hydrodynamics of the CAS all his professional life. Is there anything new left to be learned about water? The article below was originally published in Czech in the quarterly <a href="https://pdf.avcr.cz/A/2023-03/#page=58">A / Magazine</a> of the CAS.
A life-giving liquid. It can be cool, warm, sweet, salty, tap, spring, rain, ground, mineral, but also stagnant, polluted, sometimes even toxic. Some of these modifiers probably could not be used for any other one single word. The chemical compound has the formula H2O and the systematic name oxidane, but we all know it by its common name: water. To make sure we can associate it as much as possible with its positive attributes, we need to look after it properly. One of the most qualified individuals that’s in the know about all things water is hydrochemist Martin Pivokonský, director of the <a href="https://www.ih.cas.cz/en/">Institute of Hydrodynamics</a> at the Czech Academy of Sciences (CAS).
Although his surname evokes another liquid, a beverage that is very popular among the Czechs, it is water which Pivokonský has devoted his career to. As he himself says, his personal relationship to water is not very particular, but neither is it very positive: “The first thing that comes to mind when I think of water is: wet and cold. I don’t really like getting wet, but I feel like I get wet all the time, for instance, whenever I find myself cycling or hiking.” Despite this, water has been a staple of his life for a long time – the researcher has been dedicated to it since his university studies, and his professional relationship to it is very positive.
<h4>From monitoring to testing</h4>
To begin with, it is important to clarify two terms that people sometimes do not distinguish – water treatment and wastewater treatment. Water treatment is the process of turning raw water (surface water or groundwater) into potable water. This is done in water treatment plants. On the other hand, the treatment of wastewater from households, industry, and agriculture takes place in wastewater (or sewage) treatment plants. The treated water is then returned to the water cycle or can be reused – but is not fit for human consumption.
His research concentrated mainly on water treatment, but more recently also on wastewater treatment, is also linked to the Academic Award, or Praemium Academiae (bestowed by the CAS), which Pivokonský received in 2022. With his research team, he focuses on describing and monitoring the occurrence of the composition of contaminants found in water sources, such as natural organic substances and anthropogenic micropollutants, i.e., those originating from human activities. The researcher is also seeking to shed light on their physical and physical-chemical properties that play a role in their removal from water. He is interested in their interactions with each other and with chemical agents used in water purification and treatment.
<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Akademie_ved_Ceske_republiky_Hydrochemist_Martin_Pivokonsky_on_how_to_improve_water_and_wastewater_treatment_In_2022_Martin_Pivokonsky_right_received_the_prestigious_Praemium_Academiae_701401dd3e.jpg" alt="The Czech Academy of Sciences: In 2022, Martin Pivokonský (right) received the prestigious Praemium Academiae – Academic Award."/>
The research focus of the thirteen-member team is broad in scope. The team is also involved in developing new water treatment methods such as oxidation and photo-oxidation technologies, electrocoagulation, and secondary coagulation that precedes membrane filtration. “In addition, we’re also working on laboratory and pilot-scale testing of new methods and technologies for water treatment and wastewater treatment. In other words, we are interested in the occurrence of pollutants in water, their interactions, and toxicological effects, all with the aim of developing new effective methods for their removal,” Pivokonský specifies.
In order for researchers to be able to fully dedicate themselves to all these areas, they need good conditions for their work. “In the Czech Republic, it’s not so much a lack of equipment or insufficient infrastructure that troubles us. The problem lies in the long-term undervaluation of the financial remuneration for highly qualified workers,” the researcher explains, whose vision of how to make use of the generous financial bonus that comes with the Praemium Academiae is clear – invest in people. He plans to create a strong team of experts that will remain functional even after the financial resources from the awarded bonus have been depleted.
Logically, this leads to the fact that scientists are constantly writing projects in order to have enough money to run their institutions, and they have less and less time for their own science. &quot;Until institutional support is increased to at least eighty percent, there will be no stabilisation of Czech science,&quot; Pivokonský believes.
Just as clear-cut as his vision of a robust research team is his stance on supporting science in the Czech Republic. According to him, the fundamental shortcoming is the fact that institutional funding is lacking, greatly: “Lacking to such a degree, in fact, that without earmarked funding, we wouldn’t even have enough money for the day-to-day operation of our institutions, let alone any serious research.” Logically, this leads to scientists constantly submitting various grant projects just to obtain enough funds for operation, leaving them with less and less time for actual scientific work. “Until institutional support is increased to at least eighty percent, there can be no talk about stabilising Czech research and development,” Pivokonský believes.
<h4>The most valuable natural resource</h4>
Although water covers up to three-quarters of our planet, it is becoming increasingly scarce. It is reported that freshwater constitutes only two-and-a-half percent of the total volume of water. However, this does not necessarily mean that it is potable or usable for industry, agriculture, and other sectors of human activity. Around the world, water sources are contaminated by a variety of anthropogenic substances. These include various industrial chemicals, flame retardants, detergents, pharmaceuticals, veterinary drugs, pesticides and their metabolites, components of cosmetic and household products, artificial sweeteners and dyes, heavy metals, and organometallic compounds.
<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Akademie_ved_Ceske_republiky_Hydrochemist_Martin_Pivokonsky_on_how_to_improve_water_and_wastewater_treatment_Water_around_the_world_is_contaminated_by_a_number_of_6273187945.jpg" alt="The Czech Academy of Sciences: Water around the world is contaminated by a number of anthropogenic substances, including pharmaceuticals."/>
Unfortunately, they usually pose certain toxicological risks: often, these are substances with chronic health effects, even though they occur in water sources at concentrations in the order of “mere” nanograms per litre (ng/l), or micrograms per litre (μg/l). To illustrate, it’s as if we were trying to account for a one-hundred-crown bill in the state budget of the Czech Republic.
“If we take into account, in addition to anthropogenic pollutants, naturally occurring pollutants such as aluminosilicates, humic substances resulting from the decomposition of plant residues, and substances produced by cyanobacteria, water sources today are a mixture of heterogenous substances with complex mutual interactions and difficult-to-define treatment conditions. In this context, it is apt to speak of a ‘cocktail of substances,’” the hydrochemist explains.
Because in the past, water treatment primarily focused on the removal of common natural substances, it is them that current scientific knowledge and technological procedures are aimed at. However, the present-day cocktail of natural and anthropogenic pollutants requires new, focused research, not only to monitor their occurrence, but also to elucidate their hydrochemical role and develop new technological methods for their removal.
“There is an unimaginable amount of substances potentially contaminating our waters, and oftentimes, we don’t even know how much so, because we simply aren’t assessing them. What’s more, many times we don’t even know what these substances are,” Pivokonský explains, pointing out the fact that it is high time to reconsider whether we are assessing the quality of water today according to the right indicators. It is evident that while water sources show better quality in terms of “traditional” indicators than, for instance, at the beginning of the millennium, in terms of “new” pollutants, this may not be the case, or may show even worse results.
<h4>Where there’s danger lurking</h4>
Every day, we use an incredible amount of chemical substances that ultimately end up back in our environment. And because water is an ideal transport medium for many substances, they eventually make their way into water sources, too, even if their life cycle may not directly involve water. A typical example is the widely discussed perfluorinated organic compounds (PFAS). What are they, exactly?
“Perfluorinated and polyfluorinated organic compounds represent an extensive group of several thousand human-made organic compounds characterised by a very strong bond between fluorine atoms and carbon atoms rather than hydrogen atoms. While this gives them unique properties useful in industrial production, they are literally a disaster for the environment,” the researcher explains. The bond between carbon and fluorine does not occur naturally in the natural environment, so there are no natural mechanisms in place to break down these substances.
These substances are therefore persistent (resistant to degradation) and bioaccumulative (accumulating in living organisms). Moreover, they are considered human carcinogens. They are likely the cause of kidney, ovarian, testicular, and prostate cancer. They are also highly reprotoxic (reducing fertility in women), they can increase the risk of high blood pressure during pregnancy and cause pre-eclampsia (a placental disease) and lower birth weight in newborns.
Since PFASs have been manufactured since roughly the 1950s, they are now found everywhere in the world and in virtually all components of the environment, including water and food. “Their occurrence even in small quantities is, in my opinion, alarming. If we were to consider that the concentration of PFASs in water is, say, even just twenty nanograms per liter, and you drink and consume an average of four liters of water per day, your daily intake is eighty nanograms. This is a significant amount, and this is taking into consideration the intake from drinking water alone,” Pivokonský points out.
<h4>Beware of cosmetics</h4>
When the life cycle of the chemicals used is directly dependent on water, unlike PFASs, contamination of water sources can be significant, without us even realizing it. Pivokonský provides an example: “A recent study analysed the amount of chemicals released by dishwasher tablets. It found that more than three-and-a-half thousand different chemical substances are released from a single tablet.” These then enter wastewater and subsequently into water recipients, i.e., places where surface water and wastewater converge, such as ponds, reservoirs, lakes, and watercourses.
<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Akademie_ved_Ceske_republiky_Hydrochemist_Martin_Pivokonsky_on_how_to_improve_water_and_wastewater_treatment_A_recent_study_showed_that_more_than_three_and_a_half_thousand_different_chemicals_26674119f6.jpg" alt="The Czech Academy of Sciences: A recent study showed that more than three and a half thousand different chemicals are released from dishwasher tablets."/>
However, dishwasher tablets are not the only concern. While drugs and hormones are relatively well broken down by natural processes, due to their overall high daily consumption in society, we find them in practically every water source. According to Pivokonský, what gets somewhat overlooked in discussions are so-called personal care products. A typical representative of this group of substances is, for instance, triclosan, which has antibacterial and fungicidal effects. It gets added to soaps, deodorants, toothpaste, shaving cream, mouthwash, and cleaning agents. However, it is also found in kitchen utensils, toys, bed linen, and garbage bags. Its effects on human health are debated; nevertheless, it appears to be a substance that affects the endocrine system, specifically the thyroid gland.
Pivokonský emphasises that the problem is not so much the concentration of individual substances but rather their overall mix and synergistic effect on living organisms: “Sometimes I am truly astounded by the tired argument of certain technocrats that all the substances we analyse in water or other components of the environment have always been there and we just didn’t know it because we didn’t have the appropriate analytical capabilities. This is a complete fallacy! Anthropogenic substances can only have been present in water since we started producing them.”
According to the researcher, another dangerous misconception is the claim that water is devoid of these substances or that their concentrations are so low that they are not worth paying attention to. Today, we produce a huge amount of chemicals and use them so to such an extent that they are simply everywhere, including in the water. Hundreds, perhaps thousands or tens of thousands of chemical substances enter the water. “But how many of them do we actually assess? Dozens realistically, occasionally in some study, hundreds. However, this may only represent a fraction of the actual situation,” Pivokonský says. There are countless substances polluting our water. If we were to mention them all, it would make for a lengthy publication.
Protecting water sources, protecting our air, protecting agricultural land, protecting our seas and oceans, protecting biodiversity... We are already protecting the entire planet, yet our environment continues to deteriorate. How is this possible? Pivokonský wonders, answering himself straight away: “It’s probably because the sentiment sounds good on paper, but in reality, we’re not actually protecting much. We should stop hiding behind the protection of everything and admit that what we really care about is the protection of ourselves and our own human existence here and now. Then perhaps we could finally start living and managing things sensibly, thereby actually protecting everything mentioned above.”
<h4>Opposites attract</h4>
Some people are said to be like fire and water. In Pivokonský, both elements intertwine in one person. His lifelong passion is water, but as a Sagittarius, he falls under the fire signs in the zodiac. Sagittarians are said to excel in their idealism and sincerity, they yearn for truth and knowledge, and their lives tend to be active and adventurous. Freedom is important to them, and they do a lot to pursue what they believe in and enjoy. They are honest, straightforward, and at times can be accused of lacking tact.
“Personally, I don’t believe in astrology. However, I must admit that this characterisation actually fits me. I am very honest and straightforward, to the point where I often put people in awkward situations. Sometimes it can even cause me a bit of trouble because I always consider it best to say what I think, which is a mindset not everyone understands,” Pivokonský says. He also adds that he cannot do things he doesn’t believe in – and on the contrary, devoting himself to what he believes in is very enjoyable for him.
He considers freedom, both personal and professional, the greatest gift. He views science as one of the freest activities there is: “I once said that science is an aristocratic calling in the best sense of the word, meaning that it gives us tremendous freedom to explore what we ourselves deem important, but on the other hand, it imposes enormous demands on us considering that it is a service to society. In other words, it is essential for us to have the freedom in deciding the direction of our research, but at the same time, it must be an absolute given for every scientist that their research is public, transparent, and serves humanity as a whole.”
<img src="https://storage.googleapis.com/labrulez-bucket-strapi-h3hsga3/Universitas_Chemizace_zivotniho_prostredi_je_brutalni_Jedina_tableta_do_mycky_vypusti_tisice_ruznych_latek_15f44e1c1c/Universitas-Chemizace-zivotniho-prostredi-je-brutalni.-Jedina-tableta-do-mycky-vypusti-tisice-ruznych-latek..jpg" alt="The Czech Academy of Sciences: Martin Pivokonský (CC)"/>
<blockquote>
<h5>Assoc. Prof. RNDr. Martin Pivokonský, Ph.D.</h5>
Institute of Hydrodynamics at the Czech Academy of Sciences
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
Pivokonský has been the director of the Institute of Hydrodynamics of the CAS since 2017. He studied Environmental Studies at the Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, and subsequently pursued the field of Applied and Landscape Ecology. As an educator, he lectures on hydrochemistry, water pollution and protection, and the treatment of groundwater and surface water. He is the author of several utility models, patents, and over sixty publications in academic journals, and he has co-authored several books, such as Coagulation in Water Treatment and Jar Tests for Water Treatment Optimisation: How to Perform Jar Tests – a handbook. As a researcher, his primary focus is hydrochemistry, water treatment and purification, water protection, and other environmental issues related to water pollution. In 2021, he received the President&#39;s Award from the Czech Science Foundation, and a year later, he was awarded the prestigious Praemium Academiae by the Czech Academy of Sciences.
</blockquote>

Hydrochemist Martin Pivokonský on how to improve water and wastewater treatment

“Fat can be extracted even from thousand-year-old pottery,” says V. Brychová

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“Fat can be extracted even from thousand-year-old pottery,” says V. Brychová

Hydrochemist Martin Pivokonský on how to improve water and wastewater treatment

Luděk Sehnal: I see the foreign experience as essential. In Australia, I found the scientific topic of a lifetime.

Patti wins medal from the American Society for Mass Spectrometry

Scientists should ask themself what impact science has on different people, says applicant for prestigious MSCA-FP funding

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