On Sunday, June 16, the 41st annual national contest of Students’ Professional Activities (SPA) ended with an award ceremony for the best students in each category. Advancing to the national round is a great success for the entrants. One of the prizes in the Healthcare category is the Prize of the Director of the Institute of Physiology CAS. Hana Bernhardová (Gymnázium [KB1] F. Palackého, Valašské Meziříčí) won the first place in this category for her paper Effects of the canonical Wnt signalling pathway on differentiation potential of NG2 glia after ischemic brain injuries . Karolina Kubová (Gymnázium T. Novákové, Brno) came second for her paper Kinase Chk1 as a potential therapeutic target in malignant melanoma cells. Kateřina Ptáčková (Gymnázium and Vocational School of Pedagogy, Liberec) placed third with her paper Lactose Intolerance.

Marek Heide, who ranked fourth in the same category, achieved another great success; he won a special prize: a nomination to the competition Česká hlavička—a programme supporting talented students in technology and science —in the category Futura "Solutions for the Future", a prize awarded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports. Marek completed an internship at the Institute of Physiology at the Department of Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering under the guidance of Jana Musílková. Congratulations to all the winners!