Main research areas:

Main research areas:

• biology of the non-coding RNAs (microRNA, PIWI-interacting RNAs, long non-coding RNAs, etc.) and their involvement in carcinogenesis,
• roles of non-coding RNAs in solid cancer pathogenesis and identification of new therapeutic targets,
• application of non-coding RNAs in solid cancer diagnostics and therapy personalization.

We are focused on comprehensive and high-troughput analysis of non-coding RNAs, mainly RNAseq and small RNAseq, in solid cancer and identification of potential susceptibility, diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive biomarkers in tumor tissue or patient’s body fluids and development of related intellectual property (IP).

We design and coordinate multi-centric prospective studies for validation of biomarkers we have identified in retrospective studies and collaborate on the development of diagnostics to enable higher level of individualization in clinical management of solid cancer patients (mainly gastrointestinal and urologic cancers).

We have established network of 8 collaborating comprehensive cancer centres in Czech Republic (Brno, 2x Prague, Olomouc, Ostrava, Plzen, Hradec Kralove, Zlin) with all legal agreements in place and a huge capacity in providing clinical specimens and patients clinical data enabling large prospective biomarkers studies.

We started collaboration with industry on development of CE IVD diagnostic kits for non-invasive early detection of colorectal cancer (circulating microRNAs and piRNAs) and prediction of therapeutic response to anti-EGFR therapy in metastatic colorectal cancer with wild-type RAS (tissue microRNAs).

We study clinically relevant non-coding RNAs in vitro as potential therapeutic targets (mainly glioblastoma, pancreatic and colorectal cancer) to discover the molecular mechanism responsible for their pathogenic functioning.

To this end, we have established wide range of in vitro techniques (including CRISPR/cas9) and currently we dispose with more than 80 stable cancer cell lines and have derived more than 100 primary cell lines from individual tumor specimens of pancreatic, renal cell carcinoma, colorectal cancer and glioblastoma patients.

For in vivo validation of this therapeutic targets we use the xenograft models and knock-in/knock-out experiments. We also perform pharmacological studies evaluating innovative RNA-based therapy together with original delivery systems.

International collaborations

Prof. George Calin, MD, PhD, Anderson Cancer Center, TX, USA;

Prof. Vince Fischetti, PhD, Rockfeller University, NY, USA;

Prof. Massimo Negrini, MD, PhD, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy;

Markus Kretz, PhD, University of Regensburg, Regensburg, Germany;

Prof. Klaus Jung, MD, PhD, Charite University Berlin, Germany.