Jindřich Chmelař (head of the department)
Curriculum vitae
In 2010, Jindřich Chmelař finished doctoral studies with the disertation „Transcriptomic and functional analysis of salivary proteins from the tick Ixodes ricinus“. During his PhD he specialized on the immunomodulatory and anti-inflammatory properties of tick salivary components, especially serine protease inhibitors – serpins from important European pathogen vector - the tick Ixodes ricinus. During his postdoctoral research stay at Technical university in Dresden (2011-2014), he focused on inflammatory models in mice. He studied the role of mast cell proteases and mast cells in obesity on the model of diet-induced-obesity using mast cell deficient and mast cell chymase deficient mouse strains. Since 2015 he continues at the Department of Medical biology as research/teacher assistant. In 2016 he was awarded with GAČR junior grant, focused at the research on tick serpins in host immunomodulation. Since 2016, he is head of the Department of Medical Biology.
Education:
1997 – 2001: Bachelor studies in Biology. Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. Specialization in the phylogenetics of bacterial endosymbionts of ticks.
2003 – 2005: Master studies in Parasitology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. Specialization – tick molecular biology and a proteomics.
2008 – RNDr. in Parazitology at Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice.
2005 –2010 – Doctoral studies at the Department of Parasitology, Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice. Specialization – tick functional transcriptomics, proteomics and immunology of the tick-host interaction.
Current position:
Since 08/2016 Head of the Dept. Of Medical Biology on Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice
Previous positions:
2015-07/2016: Lecturer/Researcher at the Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia
2011-2014: Post doctoral fellow at the Department of Clinical Pathobiochemistry, Faculty of Medicine of the TU Dresden (Dresden, Germany). Specialization – acute and chronic inflammation, immunology of obesity.
2009-2011: Research assistant in the Laboratory of Genomics and Proteomics of Disease Vectors, Institute of parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences. Specialization – Molecular aspects of tick-host interaction.
2005-2009: Research assistant in the Laboratory of Parasite Immunology at Institute of Parasitology, Biology Centre, Czech Academy of Sciences. Molecular aspects of tick-host interaction.
Other professional experience
September – November 2006: Research visit in the Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, Vector Molecular Biology Unit ( the laboratory of Dr. Jesus G. Valenzuela, National Institute of Allergy and Infections Disease, Rockville, Maryland, U.S.A.). Construction and sequencing of cDNA libraries from tick salivary glands
February – April 2008 – Research visit in the Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, Vector Biology Unit (the laboratory of Prof. José M.C. Ribeiro, NIH/NIAID). Production of recombinant serpins in bacterial expression system.
September – October 2009 – Research visit in Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Anatomy, Physiology and Biochemistry, the laboratory of Prof. Gunnar Pejler. Isolation and work with mouse mast cells.
Selected conferences
2013 - 47th Annual Scientific Meeting of the European Society for Clinical Investigation (Albufeira, Portugal) –„ The role of mast cell chymase in obesity and adipose tissue inflammation“
2017 – Biospot, 2nd annual conference (Prague, Czech Republic). Novel anti-hemostatics and immunomodulators from tick saliva
2018 - Gordon Conference on Proteolytic Enzymes and Their Inhibitors (Il Ciocco, Barga, Italy), Talk and poster on tick serpins
2019 – SERPINS2019, Sevilla, Spain. Invited talk on the topic: The role of tick salivary serpins in the modulation of host immune system
Selected publications
Kotál J, Stergiou N, Buša M, Chlastáková A, Beránková Z, Řezáčová P, Langhansová H, Schwarz A, Calvo E, Kopecký J, Mareš M, Schmitt E, Chmelař J, Kotsyfakis M. The structure and function of Iristatin, a novel immunosuppressive tick salivary cystatin. Cell Mol Life Sci. 2019 May;76(10):2003-2013.
Chmelař J, Kotál J, Kovaříková A, Kotsyfakis M. The Use of Tick Salivary Proteins as Novel Therapeutics. Front Physiol. 2019 Jun 26;10:812. eCollection 2019. Review. Central PMCID:
Uher O, Caisova V, Hansen P, Kopecky J, Chmelar J, Zhuang Z, Zenka J, Pacak K. Coley's immunotherapy revived: Innate immunity as a link in priming cancer cells for an attack by adaptive immunity. Semin Oncol. 2019 Aug - Oct;46(4-5):385-392.
Chmelař J, Kotál J, Langhansová H, Kotsyfakis M. Protease Inhibitors in Tick Saliva: The Role of Serpins and Cystatins in Tick-host-Pathogen Interaction. Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol., 29 May 2017.
Caisová V, Vieru A, Kumžáková Z, Glaserová S, Husníková H, Vácová N, Krejčová G, Paďouková L, Jochmanová I, Wolf KI, Chmelař J, Kopecký J, Ženka J. Innate immunity based cancer immunotherapy: B16-F10 murine melanoma model. BMC Cancer. 2016 Dec 7;16(1):940.
Chmelař J, Chatzigeorgiou A, Chung KJ, Prucnal M, Voehringer D, Roers A, Chavakis T. No Role for Mast Cells in Obesity-Related Metabolic Dysregulation. Front Immunol. 2016 Nov 24;7:524.
Chmelař J, Kotál J, Kopecký J, Pedra JH, Kotsyfakis M. All For One and One For All on the Tick-Host Battlefield. Trends Parasitol. 2016 May;32(5):368-77
Chmelař J, Kotál J, Karim S, Kopacek P, Francischetti IM, Pedra JH, Kotsyfakis M. Sialomes and Mialomes: A Systems-Biology View of Tick Tissues and Tick-Host Interactions. Trends Parasitol. 2016 Mar;32(3):242-54
Kotál J, Langhansová H, Lieskovská J, Andersen JF, Francischetti IM, Chavakis T, Kopecký J, Pedra JH, Kotsyfakis M, Chmelař J. Modulation of host immunity by tick saliva. J Proteomics. 2015 Oct 14;128:58-68.
Chmelar J, Chung KJ, Chavakis T. The role of innate immune cells in obese adipose tissue inflammation and development of insulin resistance. Thromb Haemost. 2013 Mar;109(3):399-406.
Chmelar J, Calvo E, Pedra JH, Francischetti IM, Kotsyfakis M. Tick salivary secretion as a source of antihemostatics. J Proteomics. 2012 Jul 16;75(13):3842-54.
Eskan MA, Jotwani R, Abe T, Chmelar J, Lim JH, Liang S, Ciero PA, Krauss JL, Li F, Rauner M, Hofbauer LC, Choi EY, Chung KJ, Hashim A, Curtis MA, Chavakis T, Hajishengallis G. The leukocyte integrin antagonist Del-1 inhibits IL-17-mediated inflammatory bone loss. Nat Immunol. 2012 Mar 25;13(5):465-73.
Chmelar J, Oliveira CJ, Rezacova P, Francischetti IM, Kovarova Z, Pejler G, Kopacek P, Ribeiro JM, Mares M, Kopecky J, Kotsyfakis M. A tick salivary protein targets cathepsin G and chymase and inhibits host inflammation and platelet aggregation. Blood. 2011 Jan 13;117(2):736-44.
Chmelar J, Anderson JM, Mu J, Jochim RC, Valenzuela JG, Kopecký J. Insight into the sialome of the castor bean tick, Ixodes ricinus. BMC Genomics. 2008 May 20;9:233.