Dr. Martin Marek
PI at "Structural biology" research group

Martin Marek is a leader of the "Structural Biology" group within the research program of Loschmidt Laboratories of Protein Engineering. He received an M.Sc. degree in Virology (Charles University, Prague), an M.Sc. degree in Plant Health Management and a Ph.D. degree in Plant Pathology and Crop Protection at Czech University of Life Sciences (Prague). He completed several internships and long-term research stays at the Wageningen University (Netherlands), Généthon (France) and Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology and Genetics (France).   

Martin is an excited protein scientist who wishes to understand how diverse chemical reactions are catalysed by biological catalysts (enzymes) evolved in living creatures. To this end, he combines molecular biology, biochemistry, and structural biology (X-ray crystallography and cryo-electron microscopy) to obtain atomic-level mechanistic insights into the three-dimensional structure, function, and regulation of enzymes. He also develops protein engineering strategies and chemical tools that selectively modulate molecular functions of enzymes; exploitable in basic research as well as in environmentally friendly cutting-edge biotechnologies. The long-term goal of his research is to address an unanswered fundamental question: how do enzymes acquire the structural diversity and conformational flexibility that allow them to evolve towards new molecular function?