PODCAST: How RNA works and why vaccination matters
The guest on the new episode of our partner podcast Brain We Are is Hana Macíčková Cahová, laureate of the Neuron Award 2018 for promising young scientists in chemistry. As an expert on new structures she describes the complexity of RNA, its importance for the human body, and talks about how the mRNA vaccine works. Cooking, rock music and the worst beer in the world also come up.
The guest on the new episode of our partner podcast Brain We Are is Hana Macíčková Cahová, laureate of the Neuron Award 2018 for promising young scientists in chemistry. As an expert on new structures she describes the complexity of RNA, its importance for the human body, and talks about how the mRNA vaccine works. Cooking, rock music and the worst beer in the world also come up.
She was interested in the origin of life and wanted to understand nature. For Hana Macíčková Cahová a scientific career was therefore a natural choice and studying chemistry an appealing prospect. "Chemistry is the most beautiful and most logical of all the natural sciences," she says in our podcast. Today she leads the Chemical Biology of Nucleic Acids group at the IOCB, to which she returned after experience at universities abroad and at home. Her professional focus is new chemical structures in RNA.
"RNA carries genetic information and at the same time is capable of metabolism, so it is not just a messenger. We do not yet understand all its functions, but it carries information and can behave like proteins," she explains in the podcast, describing her admiration for her subject. She believes that RNA research will play an important role in complex treatment processes in future, and as a scientist she would like to live to see a cure for cancer available. "And above all, go and get vaccinated!" Hana Macíčková Cahová urges everyone.
The podcast is not only about RNA and the complexities of the molecular world, for the study of which Hana Macíčková Cahová received the Neuron Award as a promising young scientist. The Brain We Are hosts also ask her about the quality of Czech and foreign institutes, about the predatory business in scientific papers and about pointless conferences.
"Science is a beautiful job that does not drain you but gives you energy," is how Hana Macíčková Cahová assesses her decision to embark on a scientific career. "You need knowledge and understanding of the problem, but creativity too — and what drives me personally is curiosity, all the time."
LISTEN TO OTHER PODCASTS WITH NEURON AWARD LAUREATES
PODCAST WITH TOMÁŠ MIKOLOV ON ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND WORKING FOR THE TECH GIANTS
PODCAST WITH PETR KOHOUT ON THE SYMBIOSIS OF FUNGI AND OTHER PLANTS IN THE FOREST
