Scientists at the Institute of Molecular Genetics have acquired a new building

Prague - The employees of the Institute of Molecular Genetics of the Academy of Sciences have received a new modern building. The institute, which was located in many buildings both in Prague and outside the metropolis, is now concentrated in one place thanks to it. The facility in Prague's Krč was officially opened today. This is the first newly constructed building that the Academy of Sciences has received since 1990.
    This institute should bring Czech science to the European forefront, said Czech News Agency the Chairman of the Academy of Sciences and former director of the institute Václav Pačes. According to him, it will provide opportunities at a high level for new groups led by scientists who have returned after a long time from excellent foreign laboratories. The building meets the parameters of the 21st century, Pačes emphasized.
    Construction began in 2005; the cost has reached approximately 445 million crowns, and with equipment, including laboratory technology, it will total 607 million crowns. Operations in the building began last December. This year, the academy plans to build a zoo and a lecture building with a hall for 300 people. The zoo will meet all European standards. "Mice have more rights today than humans," noted Pačes.
    Pačes is not very satisfied with the level of Czech science. "It's not surprising; we were in isolation for 40 years. Today, we are already 15 years after political changes, and I imagined it would be better than it actually is," said the chairman of the academy. According to him, salaries for scientists are fairly decent today, better than in the 1990s. Scientists have additional bonuses and other income if they obtain foreign or domestic grants. The time when people had to leave Czech science is no longer, he remarked. "It is not true that a scientist's life is a hardship," said the institute's director Václav Hořejší.
    The new spaces will be used by scientists for basic research, training PhD students, and professional training of company employees. It will also connect to facilities in this part of Prague. Research in microbiology, physiology, pharmacology, and medicine is already concentrated in the Krč area. Near the area is also the Institute of Clinical and Experimental Medicine and Thomayer Hospital.
    The new building has five floors. The floors are divided into quarters, with two research groups on each floor. On the ground floor is the "robotic" laboratory. It is used for experiments that need to be conducted on thousands of samples.
    The Institute of Molecular Genetics was established in 1962 under the name Institute of Experimental Biology and Genetics of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. It focuses on basic research in the areas of microbial and mammalian genomics, oncogenes and retroviruses, cytoskeletal structure, gene expression, molecular foundations of immunity, fertilization, and protein structure. Currently, it has 340 employees.