From visions to innovations: an interview with Dr. Maly, Head of CENAB
In the latest issue of the university magazine Silverius (1/2025) you will find, for example, an interview with Mgr. Jan Malý, Ph.D., the founder of the Centre for Nanomaterials and Biotechnology (CENAB), which is part of our faculty and one of the most prominent centres of the UJEP. News about its activities and research is spread by the media and the professional public even beyond the borders of the Czech Republic. CENAB is growing and the university with it.
Let’s try to take it unconventionally from the back. Could you give readers an overview of CENAB today and its importance not only for UJEP?
The Centre for Nanomaterials and Biotechnology is basically a very young part of the Faculty of Science at UJEP, which was established in 2022 by separating part of the then Department of Biology and merging it with the Ústí nad Labem Materials Centre. This way, two long-term cooperating teams were connected, which intertwined in the thematic focus of research and participation in the teaching of the interdisciplinary study programme Applied Nanotechnology. I believe that although it is still too early to assess the wider significance of CENAB, it is already possible to perceive its growing potential, especially in the area of research activities. The Centre’s staff are, I think, very successful in obtaining both basic and applied research projects. This can be illustrated by the high number of projects in which CENAB is currently involved as principal investigator or co-investigator. These are a total of 12 projects with a financial volume of more than EUR 25 million. CZK per year. Of course, in parallel with this, it is necessary to mention the increasing publication activity of the department, which since its inception has generated around 30 publications per year, with their authors appearing annually in successful nominations for the Rector’s Prize of the UJEP. From my point of view, it is essential that the department has been able to further develop in terms of personnel, especially by attracting top researchers with foreign experience, again mainly thanks to funding from project sources. This provides a good background for further growth and improvement in the quality of research.
If we were to go back in time, what brought you personally to UJEP?
UJEP is my home university. I graduated as a teacher with a degree in biology – chemistry. However, already during my studies I had the opportunity to ‘smell’ science at the Institute of Microbiology of the CAS, where I worked on my diploma thesis in the Department of Phototrophic Microorganisms in Třeboň. I was very lucky because – and I think this is very important in the professional career of every future academic – I met a great supervisor and personality, Prof. Jiří Masojídek, who later also became my supervisor in my PhD studies at the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. During my studies I was lucky to meet many inspiring personalities, for example during a long-term research stay abroad in Italy, where I worked on the development of electrochemical biosensors at the Institute of New Technologies in Rome with Dr. Roberto Pilloton. I think it was these positive experiences that made me decide to pursue an academic career. For this reason, I later accepted an offer to work at UJEP. However, I must mention that the beginning was very difficult and probably few of my colleagues today can hardly imagine the conditions of my work. The department at that time was practically not equipped for any experimental research and I had to build everything myself from the very beginning, gradually and for many years, practically only from acquired projects.
What was your journey to found CENAB, can you recall a moment that was important for you on this journey?
Before founding CENAB, I was the head of the biology department for about 10 years. I think that perhaps I managed to develop the department in the right direction, accredited new study programmes with the help of my colleagues, built new facilities in the form of the Centre for Biological and Environmental Sciences (CBEO) building, established several modern laboratories, and strengthened the department with several experts from the institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. However, in recent years I felt that I had reached the maximum possible, that a more specialized independent department was needed for further development of experimental research. I very much appreciate the understanding and helpfulness of the then management of the Faculty of Science, which agreed with my proposal and intention to establish a new centre.
Are there any significant collaborations contributing to the growth of the centre?
I think that one of the goals of the establishment of CENAB was to break the unfortunately persistent – and in my opinion distorted – view of UJEP as a university of regional importance, which has little to say in the field of experimental research. I think that we may be gradually succeeding in this. We cooperate with a number of prestigious departments and laboratories, both in the Czech Republic and abroad. These collaborations are supported by the aforementioned research projects. We are gradually developing contacts with, for example, the Technical University of Dresden, both within the framework of study stays of PhD students and also by preparing joint research projects. In our laboratories you will meet many different nationalities, and English is gradually becoming a more and more common language of communication. Collaboration with industry is one of the main thrusts of our research and further development. Personally, I am convinced that the considerable resources invested in funding research, whether basic or applied, should return to society in the future in the form of innovation, increased competitiveness and generally growing prosperity. That path is not easy, but it is one that should be pursued. For this reason, we strive to collaborate in collaborative research projects and contract research with several industrial partners, particularly in the nano and biotechnology fields.
What do you think is unique about CENAB?
From my point of view, it is a combination of several factors. First of all, I would mention my colleagues. I think that we have managed to build a team of motivated colleagues who respect each other and are united by a common interest and enjoyment of their work. And that, I think, is the most important thing. Of course, they are all experts in a certain field and these fields complement each other very well. For example, we have biophysicists, molecular biologists, nanotechnologists in the team. What pleases me is the very broad age structure, it makes the team stronger. The second pillar of a certain uniqueness is the thematic focus of the research and the emphasis on interdisciplinarity of research. It is the original topics and approaches that open the door to new collaborations and projects. The third pillar, in my opinion, is the modern and competently equipped laboratory infrastructure that has been put in place in the new building of the Centre for Engineering and Science in recent years. Some laboratories are quite unique in the Czech Republic (e.g. the so-called clean rooms for the preparation of microfluidics). Personally, I consider our workplace to be friendly and open to everyone who enjoys science and the joy of discovering the unknown or who likes to ‘forge’ something.
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