About us

The Department of Organic Chemistry of the Faculty of Science of the Palacky University in Olomouc guarantees Bachelor degree in Bioorganic Chemistry and Chemical Biology that is extended by Master degree course with the same name and after passing MSc. degree, it may be followed by the State Rigorous Exam to obtain title RNDr.  The department is also a guarantee of Organic Chemistry in master degree, rigorous degree, and doctoral (Ph.D.) form. The theses may not only be done at any of the research laboratories of the department, but students are also offered (thanks to the cooperation with the Institute of Molecular and Translation Medicine and other workplaces) the opportunity to choose from a variety of topics in the field of chemistry or biology at the collaborating departments. Students are always directly involved in the research of their advisors/mentors and the highest quality bachelor and master theses are often being published as articles in impacted international journals. Thanks to the cooperation with commercial sphere it is apparent that there is always a possibility of short-term internships of the students in companies which helps them to build contacts at the labor market.

The main research activity of the department of organic chemistry is focused on the synthesis of new organic compounds with potential biological activities. Most importantly, the derivatives of interest are being designed to have antitumor or antibacterial activity; also compounds suitable for the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders are of our interest. The synthesis is often motivated by the structures of natural products and by the structures of already known bioactive compounds. To date, a number of structures based on flavonoids, terpenoids, therapeutically used cancerostatics, antibiotics or known receptor binders were synthesized. Based on the results of the biological tests, following research is more focused on the improvement of the earlier obtained compounds in order to find more perspective candidates for the preclinical research.

Another important research activity of the department is focused on the development of new fluorescent probes and labels in order to be able to detect the presence of specific biomolecules within the living cell, to visualize their activation or to clarify the mechanism of action of small molecules and to study cellular signaling pathways.

In order to succeed in both of the research aims, it is important to develop novel synthetic procedures that allow constructing the target structures or simplifying the currently used syntheses. The department is therefore focused on the development of synthetic methodology which should have versatile applicability in the preparation of various organic molecules. Solid phase synthesis and combinatorial chemistry are being commonly used beside the traditional organic synthesis in solution phase. Such combination of the methodologies allows for the synthesis of large numbers of compounds for the development of chemical libraries for the biological testing.