To finish out our company visits, we had the privilege of visiting the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. Here, we had three brief lectures and even got to tour some labs. The campus consisted of a u-shaped older building with a newer facility in the middle. The architecture alone was very nice! These buildings house cutting-edge scientific research surrounding many sectors of chemistry and biology. My favorite lecture of the three was pertaining to breast cancer research. Essentially, researchers at this institute are in the later stages of their research, which shows that through the injection of a particular chemical compound, a certain protein (found within both normal cells and cancerous cells) is influenced. It causes cancerous cells to significantly shrink, but doesn’t have a concerning impact on normal cells. Experiments have been conducted across the board to validate their findings. Our lecturer explained that, if feasible, this form of cancer treatment would be better than chemotherapy in terms of side effects. Chemotherapy is harsh, killing both cancerous and normal human cells; however, as mentioned above, normal cells would not be impacted much. It was super cool to hear about this cutting-edge research in a way that all of us engineering students could understand.
Another interesting study we learned about has to do with using light to manipulate molecular structures. While the researchers are still in the midst of their progression, this research could potentially pave the way for more chemical applications. The geometry of a structure is critical, as chemical outputs and applications can vary significantly across the different shapes. This research involves quite a bit of physics as well as chemistry.
It is surreal to think that this was our last professional/academic stop of our journey!! Looking forward to one last fun-filled day tomorrow in Cesky Krumlov.
Swanson School of Engineering 