Transferable Skills

"The first science communicators for me were already high school teachers,” says researcher and laureate of the Learned Society of the Czech Republic award, Barbora Rudzanová.

Text/Photo: Sabina Vojtěchová

Barbora Rudzanová is a doctoral student in the field of Environment and Health, a researcher at the RECETOX center for toxic substances research, and recently also the holder of the Jiřina Michlová Prize from the Learned Society of the Czech Republic for the year 2024. In the interview, she explains why she is dedicated to the impact of chemical substances on human health, what makes her work at RECETOX unique, and what she believes the popularization of science brings.

Your research topic is “The Impact of Chemical Exposure on the Human Immune System”. Why this particular topic?

My interest in it appeared already during my bachelor’s studies, when I was studying immunity and its mechanisms. The immune system fascinates me, it’s an endless interplay of all possible cells and molecules, there’s always something to discover. After my bachelor’s degree, I started to be more interested in the influences and factors that are in the environment around us and at the same time affect our health, and into which we also count chemical substances. When I had the opportunity here at RECETOX to study their impact on our immune system, I went for it.

Did a personal role model play a role in this choice of yours? Were you inspired by someone or something?

During the bachelor’s studies, where I studied biochemistry, I found a subject taught here at RECETOX out of my own interest. It was devoted to the basics of general ecotoxicology and was taught by Professor Bláha. I was attracted by the style in which it was lectured and its content. That was probably the moment when the topic drew me in and I started to think more about what and how influences us around.

Very recently, you were awarded for a study in which you and a team of other scientists dealt with a specific group of substances, namely perfluorinated compounds. Do you focus only on this group or is your research scope wider?

I am indeed primarily dealing with these substances, which are also called PFAS or eternal chemicals. When studying the mechanism of action, which I am dealing with, it is good to focus on one specific substance or group of substances, because each of them has a slightly different mechanism. In addition to that, we are now also working on a new approach to evaluating mixtures of substances. In everyday life, we are not exposed to just one chemical, but always a combination. The effects on human health can then accumulate. Describing the issue of mixtures is still a bit of a nut to crack for us scientists, so we are now trying to create a model that could help with predicting their effects.

What role do you think RECETOX plays in the quality of scientific outputs you are now able to create?

Without RECETOX, the publication simply would not have been created. It is the only academic workplace in the Czech Republic where the impact of chemical substances on human health and their mechanism is studied. In addition, I used the population study CELSPAC for my work, i.e. a group of people who voluntarily agree to provide their data for scientific purposes. As far as the Czech Republic is concerned, CELSPAC is also a bit of a rarity, because these are currently participants in the order of hundreds, which is quite a high number considering how big the Czech Republic is. Whole article.