2013-2023: HUMAN HEALTH
Factors of the natural and social environment, together with genetic predispositions, determine the health of each individual. However, their interactions can only be studied in long-term population studies. The Centre's focus on assessing the health impacts and risks associated with environmental exposures has necessitated the building of new research lines, population studies, laboratory and biobanking capacity.
PEOPLE and TEAMS
Jana Klánová took over the management of the centre in 2013. In 2016 Martin Scheringer, a modeler from ETH Zurich, strengthened the environmental exposition and modelling programme. His project intended to build excellent teams also offered the positions to other international scientists: epidemiologists Martin Bobák and Hynek Pikhart coming from University College London, and sociologist Irena Štěpáníková joining from the University of Alabama. Julie Dobrovolná (pathophysiology), Zdeněk Spáčil (metabolomics and proteomics) and Eva Budinská (biostatistics) are taking up starting positions in the multidisciplinary group of newcomers; later Elliott Price (metabolome and exposome) and Petra Bořilová Linhartová (human microbiome) are joining. These developments lead at the end of this period to the establishment of the Centre's fifth research programme, Environmental Epidemiology. Lisa Melymuk (Chemical Exposure and Indoor Environment), Klára Komprdová (Pharmacokinetic Modelling), Pavel Babica (Toxicology), Peter Šebej (Photochemistry), Martin Marek, David Bednář and Stanislav Mazurenko (Protein Engineering) also begin to build their teams during this period.
RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, INNOVATION, APPLICATION
RECETOX is strengthening its international reputation in traditional fields, building visibility in emerging areas and increasingly engaging in international projects and networks: it has been awarded two projects in the 5th European Framework Programme (FP5), three in FP6, 10 in FP7 and 18 in Horizon 2020. The number of Horizon Europe programme is still increasing. The Centre participates in research cooperation projects, but is also successful in individual and mobility projects, international training networks and projects to promote commercialization. It has applied its long-standing experience in leading the GOS4POP (Global Observing System for Persistent Organic Pollutants in the Group on Earth Observations, GEO) initiative and in ERA-PLANET (European Network for Planetary Change Observations) projects supporting the development of an integrated system for monitoring environmental quality using sensors and advanced information systems. It cooperates with public administrations not only at international and national level but also at regional level. It is involved in projects for the development of healthy smart cities and intelligent solutions for the urban environment and the idea of Brno as a living lab is emerging.
In 2010, RECETOX entered the landscape of large research infrastructures and its research infrastructure was included as a promising project in the Roadmap of large infrastructures for research, development and innovation in the Czech Republic. The basic pillars were the accredited chemical laboratories, MONET monitoring networks and GENASIS information systems. Since 2011, RECETOX RI has become a large research infrastructure.
In 2013, RECETOX took over the Czech branch of the European Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ELSPAC) from the Faculty of Medicine of MU, which has been following families of children born in Brno and Znojmo since 1991. This development was supported in 2017-2020 by the RECETOX RI project of the Operational Programme Science, Development, Education (OP VVV), which enabled the construction of modern capacities for the automatic storage of biological material - the CELSPAC biobank.
EDUCATION
Following the rapid development of research, the concept of the Centre's training programmes was revised. In 2019, new study programmes were accredited at bachelor's, master's and then doctoral level. The Environment and Health programme combines the original strands of Environmental Chemistry and (Eco)Toxicology and moves them further towards environmental impacts on health. The Computational Biology and Biomedicine programme extends the original focus on biostatistics with a second, bioinformatics specialisation.
PROJECTS and COOPERATION
A major project of the European Horizon 2020 programme in which the Centre was involved in 2017 was HBM4EU (Human Biomonitoring for Europe). It sought to harmonise approaches to long-term population studies and laboratory techniques and to make European research data available for decision-making processes and legislation to protect human health. He has helped the Centre to better engage in European initiatives on research on the human exposome, the set of factors that influence human health and the development of chronic diseases that particularly threaten vulnerable populations.
At the end of this decade, the Centre's long-term efforts to improve its scientific quality, build interdisciplinary expertise and international collaboration were rewarded by the award of a trio of projects under the European H2020 Widening Programme aimed at developing science in the new member countries and better integrating them into the European Research Area. The future direction of the Centre is closely linked to the implementation of the CETOCOEN Excellence TEAMING project (2020-2026), which funds a seven-year process of rebuilding the Centre's research infrastructure, human resources and management to maximise the further development of the quality of its research and education programmes. It establishes long-term partnerships with University College London, ETH Zurich, the European biobanking network BBMRI and the International Clinical Research Centre of St. Anne's University Hospital in Brno (FNUSA-ICRC). The second instrument for the further development of the Centre was the H2020 R-EXPOSOME project of the ERA Chair call, building the Centre's fifth research programme focused on epidemiology and integrative analysis of large population data. Martin Bobák and Hynek Pikhart from UCL, London have moved to the shared ERA Chair in Epidemiology. The third H2020 URBAN-X project on TWINNING, focusing on the impact of the urban environment, has added ISGlobal in Barcelona and the University of Utrecht, two institutions at the forefront of epidemiological research in Europe, to the network of collaborating institutions.
The Centre's international visibility has been enhanced by its involvement in the EURION cluster of European projects on hormone disruptors (OBERON and ERGO projects) and in the European EHEN network for the study of the human exposome (ATHLETE and EXPANSE projects). Exposure to pesticides or microplastics (and chemicals used to treat plastics) has emerged as new research topics in European projects.
