Laboratory of Cell Signalling

Laboratory of Cell Signalling

Vomastek LAB

Cells can be viewed as an information system that senses and reads changes in the extracellular and intracellular environment, processes that information and transforms it into a relevant cellular response. In our laboratory, we study protein phosphorylation by protein kinases as a universal and pivotal mechanism of signal transduction in biological systems. We focus on two main areas. The research in the “prokaryotic” working subgroup headed by Pavel Branny studies the protein kinase StkP in the pathogenic bacterium Streptococcus pneumoniae and investigates how StkP controls cell division through the reversible phosphorylation of various proteins. The “eukaryotic” group led by Tomáš Vomastek studies the ERK signaling pathway in eukaryotic cells, particularly how ERK controls several interrelated topics such as cell proliferation, motility, polarity, stress adaptation governed by RNA granules, and tumor development and progression.