Creating a scientific and educational forum for students, scientists and other professionals to learn about, to share, to contribute to, and to advance the state of knowledge in its field of science is the aim of the Organization for Computational Neuroscience, which staged its annual meeting in Prague in July 18-23, 2015, co-organized by the CAS Institute of Physiology and the Charles University. Keynote speakers at the CNS 2015 Prague: Jack Cowan, Wulfram Gerstner and its president Astrid Prinz gave interviews to the Academic Bulletin, in which they highlighted the both the new findings and main open questions in computational neuroscience. This field combines mathematical analyses and computer simulations with experimental neuroscience to develop a principled understanding of the workings of the nervous systems and apply it in a wide range of technologies. Increasingly studies emphasize the circuitry and network function in the brain. Investigations are focused on the changes of the functional and anatomical features in a healthy brain as compared to dysfunctional brain states; thus, studies of the healthy brain provide insights into brain dysfunction, while observations of dysfunctional brain states give clues to normal brain functioning. This workshop explored computation in both the healthy and dysfunctional brain to uncover what each state might reveal about the other. and Jana Olivová.
Small molecules that regulate the cell division cycle are a joint research project of the CAS Institute of Experimental Botany and Palacký University’s Faculty of Science. An interview with Professor Miroslav Strnad, head of the Laboratory of Growth Regulations, describes the significance of this joint project. The laboratory concentrates its research on small molecules that regulate cell division cycle, proliferation and growth of both plant and animal cells. Cytokinins and cytokinin-derived purine inhibitors of cyclindependent kinases are the most intensively studied compounds. The multidisciplinary research team is composed of experienced plant physiologists, biochemists and organic and analytical chemists. Many students are involved in the research phase during their pre-graduate and postgraduate studies in botany, analytical and organic chemistry, biochemistry or medicinal biology. Several research projects are in progress in collaboration with international partners (University of Berlin; Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences; University of Natal Pietermaritzburg, South Africa and the Vienna Medical University. and Marina Hužvárová.
The 80 th Prague Meeting on Macromolecules, this time focused on Self-assembly in the world of polymers, took place in Prague on July 10-14, 2016. Its participants discussed theoretical aspects of polymer self-assembly, advanced methods of preparing and characterizing self-assembling macromolecular system; special attention was paid to biomimetic self-assembled nanostructures as well as to biological and technical applications of self-assembled macromolecular systems. and Jana Olivová.
This issue also brings an interview with Dr. Vilém Neděla, the head of Environmental Electron Microscopy of the Institute of Scientific Instruments of the CAS on the Quanta 650 FEG scanning electron microscope (SEM), which is used for high-resolution imaging and semi-quantitative X-ray microanalysis of both conductive and non-conductive specimens at nanometer resolution. and Magdaléna Selingerová.