On Friday, 2 December 2022, the winners of the 21st annual Česká Hlava 2022 competition were presented at a press conference. The gala evening to mark the award ceremony took place on Sunday, 4 December 2022. One of the winners was Mgr. Petr Sezemský, Ph. D., from the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Science of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice.
The laureates were selected from dozens of nominations by an expert jury composed of leading Czech scientists such as Richard Hindls, Rector Emeritus of the Prague University of Economics and Business, Cyril Höschl, a psychiatrist, Vladimír Beneš, a neurosurgeon, and others. The winner of the National Government Award Česká Hlava is decided by the Government on the proposal of the Government Council for Research, Development and Innovation.
The ČEZ Doctorandus Award for Technical Sciences, which is awarded to young scientists, went to Mgr. Petr Sezemský, Ph. D., from the Department of Physics of the Faculty of Science of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice.
The topic of his work is the development of bioactive nanostructured surfaces created by low-temperature plasma. Petr Sezemský has been working on the development of sensory nanostructures on optical fibre, which he coated with a thin, optically transparent and electrically conductive indium tin oxide (ITO) layer. This way, he created a sensory structure that provides the possibility of simultaneous multi-domain detection, both optically and electrochemically. In close collaboration with local and international experts, he confirmed the validity of the developed concept by successfully detecting, among others, Lyme disease pathogens. The developed detection concept has the potential to find application not only in medicine but also in analytical chemistry and other scientific fields.
An important feature of the developed sensor is the fact that the receptor molecules bound to the ITO surface, which are responsible for the selectivity of the detection, interact directly with the analyte under investigation without the need for their prior labelling, i.e. it is a so-called label-free detection. The concept of simultaneous dual detection can be considered an essential advantage of the developed sensor structure, which provides the possibility of confirming the results obtained by two independent methods: optical and electrochemical. The fact that the sensor allows a more detailed examination of its immediate surroundings and obtaining a better idea of the processes taking place on its surface can be considered another advantage. Last but not least, the simplicity of the measurement procedure, its speed and the relatively low cost of the materials used are advantages that could be reflected in the low cost of its eventual production in the future.
The development of nanostructures that enable dual detection has great application potential; using a suitable receptor, for example, a specifically interacting antibody, it is possible to use the sensor to detect e.g. proteins, hormones, drugs and microorganisms. Petr Sezemský is currently working on these topics and is pursuing further research and development in this area, in collaboration with several Czech and foreign institutions. In addition, he is intensively engaged in further research on the preparation of new functional coatings for a wider range of industrial applications, for example, protective coatings, nanostructured biofunctional surfaces, photoactive layers and others.
source:ceskahlava.cz
LINK TO VIDEO with interview (CZ)
LINK TO THE RECORDING OF THE AWARD CEREMONY (CZ)
