Lukáš Trantírek, a scientist from CEITEC MU won a prestigious EMBO Installation Grant 2012

13. Dec. 2012

Lukáš Trantírek has won an EMBO Installation Grant and become the only Czech scientist to receive this grant in 2012. Once a year, EMBO, the European Molecular Biology Organization, awards grants to ten young scientists from the Czech Republic, Estonia, Poland, Portugal and Turkey. The EMBO Installation grant makes it possible for young scientists to become independent and set up their own research groups in their countries of origin.

The EMBO Installation Grant is awarded annually in order to strengthen science in selected member states. “EMBO Installation Grants are direct support for talented young scientists who return to their mother country in order to establish their own laboratories. As a result these grants contribute to turning an unfavourable trend of talented brain-drain from countries actively working on the development of basic science”, said Gerlind Wallon, the EMBO Deputy Director.

The scientists selected for the grant receive awards from their host countries in the amount of 50,000 EUR per year for periods of three to five years. This facilitates the formation of their own scientific groups and their establishment in their respective scientific communities. As a result, the ten grant winners will become members of the prestigious network of EMBO Young Investigators, which enables them to more effectively integrate themselves and their new laboratories within the European scientific community. A total of fifty-eight researchers have received EMBO Installation Grants since the programme’s inception in 2006.

Lukáš Trantírek finished his studies in organic chemistry at Masaryk University in Brno, where he also received his Ph.D. In 2002-2004 he was a guest scientist at both the University of California in Los Angeles and Johannes Kepler University in Linz, Austria. In 2005-2009 he worked as a teaching fellow at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. In 2010 he worked as a University Docent at Utrecht University (Netherlands). Since October 2012 he has been a teaching fellow at CEITEC – Central European Institute of Technology. Lukáš Trantírek is engaged in the study of molecular mechanisms for chemical communication. He has authored over 30 publications in renowned scientific journals such as the Journal of the American Chemical Society, Cell, and PNAS.