At the beginning of October 2022 two ICCVS scientists, Zuzanna Trybała and Łukasz Arcimowicz spent two weeks with the team of professor Bořivoj Vojtěšek at the Regional Centre for Applied Molecular Oncology (RECAMO) at Masaryk Memorial Cancer Institute in Brno. They had a unique opportunity to learn the process of protein production in the mammalian expression system utilizing the ExpiCHO system. The antibodies obtained at RECAMO will be useful in future projects led by Dr Małgorzata Lisowska at ICCVS in the field of antibody design. Our scientists found the method very practical and are excited about implementing it at our Centre.

ICCVS employees were impressed by RECAMO with modern laboratories, high-end equipment and world-leading research. They received a warm welcome and guidance from RECAMO researchers: dr Martin Krkoška, dr Zuzka Tylichová, dr Pavlina Zatloukalová, dr Radovan Krejčíř, Soňa Babčanová and others. Our scientists had many inspiring discussions and conversations about differences and similarities between our countries, science, and future possibilites that led to valuable friendships.

During their stay, our scientists visited also another research centre based in Brno that collaborates with the ICCVS – CEITEC and professor Mary O’Connell’s group where they had the pleasure join dr Pavla Musilová and dr Janka Melicherová in their daily experiments. It was a valuable experience seeing state-of-the-art laboratories and visiting the Masaryk University campus.

The city of Brno surprised our researchers and turned out to be a vivid city, full of breathtaking landmarks and tourist attractions, not to mention the delicious smažený sýr! It is a beautiful city that in many ways may be even considered better then Prague! The trip was made possible thanks to NAWA Prom and ERASMUS+ programmes.

From the left: Zuzanna Trybała, Martin Krkoska, Łukasz Arcimowicz and Zuzka Tylichova at RECAMO	Martin and Vaclav in their office
Janka, Pavla, Zuzanna and Łukasz at CEITEC	Zuzanna and Łukasz during their daily work at RECAMO
Zuzanna during her daily work at RECAMO	Łukasz and Zuzanna sightseeing Brno