Michal Simicek is the scientific director of the Blood Cancer Research Group. He is interested in biochemical, molecular and cellular aspects of haematologic malignancies with a particular focus on the CAR T-cell based immunotherapy. His expertise covers the fields of protein biochemistry, structural, molecular and cell biology. Michal´s team is devoted to resolve fundamental biological questions related to clinically relevant immunoreceptors expressed on tumor tissue and T-cells. Additionally, he leads projects dedicated for development and improvement of CAR T-cell therapy applying modern genetic and molecular approaches. Moreover, he collaborates with several medical institutions and biotech companies to ensure fast transfer of the knowledge to the clinical settings.
During his career Michal worked in recognised international institutes such as Cancer Research UK, University College of London, KU Leuven/VIB in Belgium and MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK. His work was published in top scientific journals including Nature, Science, Nature Cell Biology, Nature Communications, Molecular Cell, EMBO Journal and others. In the year of 2017, he established his team at the Ostrava University and University Hospital of Ostrava, Czech Republic. In 2020, he set the ground for a brand-new animal center and currently he is the leader of the Haematooncology program in the LERCO project.
He regularly participates on international conferences and contributes to editorial revisions in Nature publishing group, Cell press, and other high-ranking journals. For his research achievements, he received numerous awards including the prestigious Neuron Award and EMBO Long Term Fellowship.
Outside of his professional life, he owns a family farm and runs a small brewery.