Department of Biophysics

Our work focuses on applying the instrumentation and methods of optical spectroscopy and microscopy, especially the methods using fluorescent probes, to gain a novel insight into the performance of membrane transporters in yeast and membrane potential, multidrug resistance of yeast and cancer cells, and biophysical properties of natural and model membranes, including lateral organization of plasma membranes, self-organization of cellular components, protein interactions and energetics and structure-function relations.
We are also involved in teaching biophysics students of the Faculty of Mathematics and Physics at undergraduate, graduate, and post-graduate level.

We have top research tools for optical spectroscopy and microscopy, cutting-edge techniques for time-resolved fluorescence spectroscopy, and the laboratories equipped for the cultivation and working with the yeast cells and cancer cell cultures.

The Biophysics group collaborates with several laboratories, both in the Czech Republic and around the world.

Aberrant divission of aged S. cerevisiae yeast cells (yeast strain defective in the RAS signalling pathway). Fluorescence microscopy (60x/NA 1.22, water immersion objective), cell walls stained with calcofluor.