Biophysics is an interdisciplinary science that applies the theories and methods of physics to understand biological systems. It encompasses a wide range of topics, from the molecular mechanisms within cells to the physical properties of organisms and ecosystems. The goal of biophysics is to uncover the physical principles underlying the structure and function of biological molecules, cells, and cellular systems, providing a deeper understanding of life itself. The Institute of Biophysics, Czech Academy of Sciences (IBP) stands as a beacon of excellence in the field of biophysical research in the Czech Republic. This article delves into its history, structure, research areas, and major scientific achievements, highlighting the role of IBP in the global scientific community.

Department of Cell Biology and Epigenetics Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences Královopolská 135 612 00 Brno Czech Republic

Zobrazit více v PubMed

Bártová E, Krejcí J, Harnicarová A, Galiová G, Kozubek S (2008) Histone modifications and nuclear architecture: a review. J Histochem Cytochem 56:711–721 PubMed DOI PMC

Bártová E, Sustácková G, Stixová L, Kozubek S, Legartová S, Foltánková V (2011) Recruitment of Oct4 protein to UV-damaged chromatin in embryonic stem cells. PLoS ONE 6(12):e27281 PubMed DOI PMC

Becquerel H, Curie P, Curie F (1900) The uranium rays and the different physical properties of radiation coming from radioactive bodies. The new radioactive substances and the radiation emitted from these substances. Phys Z 2:563–564

Bloch F, Hansen WW, Packard M (1946) Nuclear induction. Phys Rev 69:127–127 DOI

Brabec V, Kasparkova J (2005) Modifications of DNA by platinum complexes—relation to resistance of tumors to platinum antitumor drugs. Drug Resist Updat 8:131–146 PubMed DOI

Brabec V, Palecek E (1976) Interaction of nucleic-acids with electrically charged surfaces. 2. Conformational-changes in double-helical polynucleotides. Biophys Chem 4:79–92 PubMed DOI

Brázda V, Hároníková L, Liao JCC, Fojta M (2014) DNA and RNA quadruplex-binding proteins. Int J Mol Sci 15:17493–17517 PubMed DOI PMC

Bushhouse DZ, Choi EK, Hertz LM, Lucks JB (2022) How does RNA fold dynamically? J Mol Biol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jmb.2022.167665 PubMed DOI PMC

Campbell GS, Norman JM (1998) An introduction to environmental biophysics, 2nd edn. Springer-Verlag, New York, USA DOI

Cobb M, Comfort N (2023) What Rosalind Franklin truly contributed to the discovery of DNA’s structure. Nature 616:657–660 PubMed DOI

Drasil V, Soska J (1958) Induced recovery of DNA synthesis in bone marrow from irradiated Guinea pigs. Biochim Biophys Acta 28:667–668 PubMed DOI

Dubochet J, Mcdowall AW (1981) Vitrification of pure water for electron-microscopy. J Microsc-Oxford 124:Rp3–Rp4 DOI

Fojta M (2002) Electrochemical sensors for DNA interactions and damage. Electroanal 14:1449–1463 DOI

Fojtík P, Vorlícková M (2001) The fragile X chromosome (GCC) repeat folds into a DNA tetraplex at neutral pH. Nucleic Acids Res 29:4684–4690 PubMed DOI PMC

Fojtík P, Kejnovská I, Vorlícková M (2004) The guanine-rich fragile X chromosome repeats are reluctant to form tetraplexes. Nucleic Acids Res 32:298–306 PubMed DOI PMC

Franklin RE, Gosling RG (1953) Evidence for 2-chain helix in crystalline structure of sodium deoxyribonucleate. Nature 172:156–157 PubMed DOI

Fulnecek J, Kovarik A (2014) How to interpret methylation sensitive amplified polymorphism (MSAP) profiles? BMC Genet 15:2 PubMed DOI PMC

Hercík F (1927) The photocapillary reaction of plant sap. Biochem J 21:1253–1258 PubMed DOI PMC

Hercik F (1964) Effect of cysteine + glycerol on capacity of irradiated cells of Escherichia coli B for phage T3. Folia Biol-Prague 10:307

Hocek M, Fojta M (2011) Nucleobase modification as redox DNA labelling for electrochemical detection. Chem Soc Rev 40:5802–5814 PubMed DOI

Janousek B, Siroky J, Vyskot B (1996) Epigenetic control of sexual phenotype in a dioecious plant, Melandrium album. Mol Gen Genet 250:483–490 PubMed DOI

Jelen F, Palecek E (1986) Chemically reversible electroreduction of guanine in a polynucleotide chain. Biophys Chem 24:285–290 PubMed DOI

Karpfel Z, Soska J, Drasil V (1959a) The effect of certain nucleotides and nucleosides on the regeneration of haemopoietic tissue after irradiation. Biofizika [Transl] 4:64–71 PubMed

Karpfel Z, Soska J, Drasil V (1959b) Effect of pyrimidine deoxyribonucleotides on the regeneration of bone-marrow in irradiated mice. Nature 183:1600–1601 PubMed DOI

Kovařík A, Koukalová B, Bezděk M, Opatrný Z (1997) Hypermethylation of tobacco heterochromatic loci in response to osmotic stress. Theor Appl Genet 95:301–306 DOI

Kovaříková AS, Štixová L, Kovarík A, Komurková D, Legartová S, Fagherazzi P, Bártová E (2020) N-Adenosine methylation in RNA and a reduced mG/TMG level in non-coding RNAs appear at microirradiation-induced DNA lesions. Cells-Basel 9(2):360 DOI

Kovaříková AS, Štixová L, Kovarík A, Bártová E (2023) PARP-dependent and NAT10-independent acetylation of N4-cytidine in RNA appears in UV-damaged chromatin. Epigenet Chromatin 16(1):26 DOI

Kozubek S, Lukásová E, Marecková A, Skalníková M, Kozubek M, Bártová E, Kroha V, Krahulcová E, Slotová J (1999) The topological organization of chromosomes 9 and 22 in cell nuclei has a determinative role in the induction of t(9,22) translocations and in the pathogenesis of t(9,22) leukemias. Chromosoma 108:426–435 PubMed DOI

Kustner H (1923) Scattered radiation in the diagnostic and therapeutic implementation of X-ray diffraction. Naturwissenschaften 11:97–106

Kypr J, Kejnovská I, Renciuk D, Vorlícková M (2009) Circular dichroism and conformational polymorphism of DNA. Nucleic Acids Res 37:1713–1725 PubMed DOI PMC

Legartová S, Kovaříková AS, Suchánková JB, Polásek-Sedlácková H, Bártová E (2022) Early recruitment of PARP-dependent mA RNA methylation at DNA lesions is subsequently accompanied by active DNA demethylation. RNA Biol 19:1153–1171 PubMed DOI PMC

Lippincott-Schwartz J, Snapp EL, Phair RD (2018) The development and enhancement of FRAP as a key tool for investigating protein dynamics. Biophys J 115:1146–1155 PubMed DOI PMC

Mlynsky V, Janecek M, Kührová P, Fröhlking T, Otyepka M, Bussi G, Banás P, Sponer J (2022) Toward convergence in folding simulations of RNA tetraloops: comparison of enhanced sampling techniques and effects of force field modifications. J Chem Theory Comput 18:2642–2656 PubMed DOI

Monteith JL, Unsworth MH (2013) Principles of environmental physics, plants, animals, and the atmosphere, 4th edn. Academic Press, London, p 395

Nermut MV, Drasil V (1958) Changes in the dry weight and the deoxyribonucleic acid content of Proteus-vulgaris caused by penicillin. Nature 181:1740–1742 PubMed DOI

Palecek E (1960) Oscillographic polarography of highly polymerized deoxyribonucleic acid. Nature 188:656–657 PubMed DOI

Palecek E, Bartosík M (2012) Electrochemistry of nucleic acids. Chem Rev 112:3427–3481 PubMed DOI

Palecek E, Tkác J, Bartosík M, Bertók T, Ostatná V, Palecek J (2015) Electrochemistry of nonconjugated proteins and glycoproteins. Toward sensors for biomedicine and glycomics. Chem Rev 115:2045–2108 PubMed DOI PMC

Rabi II (1937) Space quantization in a gyrating magnetic field. Phys Rev 51:0652–0654 DOI

Ripin N, Boudet J, Duszczyk MM, Hinniger A, Faller M, Krepl M, Gadi A, Schneider RJ, Sponer J, Meisner-Kober NC, Allain FHT (2019) Molecular basis for AU-rich element recognition and dimerization by the HuR C-terminal RRM. P Natl Acad Sci USA 116:2935–2944 DOI

Röntgen WC (1895) Ueber eine neue Art von Strahlen. Vorläufige Mitteilung Aus den Sitzungsberichten der Würzburger Physik-medic. Gesellschaft, Würzburg, pp 137–147

Skalka M, Matyasova J, Cejkova M (1976) DNA in chromatin of irradiated lymphoid-tissues degrades invivo into regular fragments. FEBS Lett 72:271–274 PubMed DOI

Slabáková E, Culig Z, Remšík J, Souček K (2017) Alternative mechanisms of miR-34a regulation in cancer. Cell Death Dis 8:e3100 PubMed DOI PMC

Šlotová J, Karpfel Z, Kubíčková D (1971) Contribution to the study on the reparative effect of exogenous DNA in the irradiated meristem of Vicia faba. Biol Plant 13:69–78 DOI

Soska J, Drasil V, Karpfel Z (1958) The transplantation of blood-forming tissue in irradiated animals. Transplan B 5:68–68

Sponer J, Leszczynski J, Hobza P (1996) Nature of nucleic acid-base stacking: nonempirical ab initio and empirical potential characterization of 10 stacked base dimers. Comparison of stacked and H-bonded base pairs. J Phys Chem-Us 100:5590–5596 DOI

Stadlbauer P, Krepl M, Cheatham TE, Koca J, Sponer J (2013) Structural dynamics of possible late-stage intermediates in folding of quadruplex DNA studied by molecular simulations. Nucleic Acids Res 41:7128–7143 PubMed DOI PMC

Stixová L, Bártová E, Matula P, Danek O, Legartová S, Kozubek S (2011) Heterogeneity in the kinetics of nuclear proteins and trajectories of substructures associated with heterochromatin. Epigenet Chromatin 4(1):5 DOI

Stros M (2010) HMGB proteins: interactions with DNA and chromatin. BBA-Gene Regul Mech 1799:101–113

Vorlickova M, Kypr J, Kleinwachter V, Palecek E (1980) Salt-induced conformational-changes of poly(Da-Dt). Nucleic Acids Res 8:3965–3973 PubMed DOI PMC

Watson JD, Crick FHC (1953) Molecular structure of nucleic acids: a structure for deoxyribose nucleic acid. Nature 171:737–738 PubMed DOI

Zgarbová M, Otyepka M, Sponer J, Mládek A, Banás P, Cheatham TE, Jurecka P (2011) Refinement of the Cornell et al. nucleic acids force field based on reference quantum chemical calculations of glycosidic torsion profiles. J Chem Theory Comput 7:2886–2902 PubMed DOI PMC