The Institute of Molecular Genetics (IMG) is one of 52 institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The Institute was founded (under a different name) in 1962 and was always considered to be among the best Czech research institutions. In its early years the major research areas were immunology (represented by the co-discoverer of immunological tolerance Milan Hasek) and retrovirology (represented by Jan Svoboda and Josef Riman).
Academy of Sciences
In 2007, IMG moved into a new modern building in the Prague-Krc campus of biomedical institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Currently, IMG has almost 500 employees working in 29 research groups, several research core facilities, 3 large national research infrastructures, and the administrative-economic department.
IMG as a main beneficiary together with academic and university partners, successfully completed construction of a new Centre of Excellence – BIOCEV in Vestec in Central Bohemian region, the neighboring region to Prague.
Current research interests of IMG researchers cover various areas of molecular, cellular and developmental biology, genetics, immunology and structural biology. A substantial portion of the existing IMG research groups (mainly the groups established in 2007 and later) are thematically connected and employ similar methodology, technical infrastructure, and animal models.
Among the areas currently promoted at IMG are mainly cancer cell biology, immunology, cellular signaling pathways, RNA biology and epigenetics. Experimental models mainly include vertebrates (mouse, chicken, zebra fish) or mammalian cells grown in culture.
