Microbial Bioengineering Laboratory

Research group of Pavel Dvořák (Section of Microbiology, Department of Experimental Biology)

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Our current research areas

News

MBL wishes you all happy and fruitful new year 2026!

Triumph of Brno iGEM team at iGEM Jamboree 2025 in Paris!

Miguel and Matúš at the Pseudomonas Grassroots Meeting 2025 in Copenhagen

Bára successfully defended her dissertation thesis!

What our alumni say about MBL

“I would say that the best thing about MBL is the incredible support and encouragement you receive. Even though my project was often challenging (as any world-class research would be), I never felt alone or lost. Pavel and the whole group were always there for me, ready to help and inspire me to aim higher.”
Stanislav Juračka
PhD student at BOKU University, Vienna

“I started my scientific journey at MBL, where I was trusted with a high level of independence and encouraged to broaden my skills beyond wet-lab microbiology. Thanks to Pavel’s extensive network, I had the chance to collaborate internationally and even publish before finishing my master’s degree.”
Dalimil Bujdoš
PhD student at Cork University, Ireland

“Pavel approached me primarily as a student and genuinely cared about my understanding of the work – not just about delivering results. He always explained the broader context and the underlying logic of what we were doing, which allowed me to gain far more than just technical skills. Even though my internship was shortened due to the pandemic, it provided excellent preparation for my subsequent PhD studies. Moreover, regular lab meetings, progress reports, and informal social activities helped create a welcoming yet highly productive research environment.”
Eva Šviráková
PhD student at Czech Academy of Sciences, Vestec

“My time in MBL was filled with high-standard science, people who are always willing to help - be it by covering each other's backs in the lab, giving constructive feedback, or lending a hand or an ear =) and a collaborative spirit that is so important in research. It's an environment where you get enough space to pursue your own ideas, together with sufficient support and training on topics and methods needed to carry them out. Negative results are considered lessons, and importance is placed on quality over quantity.”
Barbora Burýšková, Ph.D.
Product Specialist at Telight Brno

“Looking back on my studies, joining MBL was one of the best decisions I made. From the very beginning, the always supportive, friendly and motivated environment at MBL inspired me to learn and grow as a researcher. On top of that, MBL’s network enabled me to meet and collaborate with researchers from prestigious universities focusing on engineering biology and biotechnology. Overall, I believe that MBL helped me to build the skills and confidence to begin my career as a researcher, while also leaving me with many valuable experiences and good memories.”
Denis Pšenka
Diana Biotechnologies

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The key question we are trying to answer through our research

Microorganisms make life on planet Earth possible and have helped humans since time immemorial in traditional biotechnologies, for example in the production of bread, cheese, beer, wine, or yogurt. In the last hundred years or so, microorganisms have also been successfully used as so-called cell factories in the production of medicines (e.g. antibiotics, insulin), food and feed additives (e.g. amino acids), and some other chemicals (e.g. ethanol or lactic acid).

The biggest challenge for modern microbial biotechnology is the efficient production of specialty and commodity chemicals (which are usually the basic chemical building blocks of e.g. biofuels, food supplements, biomaterials, or textiles) using renewable carbon and energy sources. The key question is where the limits of microbial physiology and microbial metabolism lie to enable the truly efficient conversion of simple sugars, organic acids, one-carbon substrates, or more complex polymeric waste feedstocks into the desired chemicals. Can we approach and overcome these limits using modern bioengineering approaches? The Microbial Bioengineering Laboratory team is trying to answer this fundamental question through its research. Answering it is essential for the development of new technologies that will enable humanity to gradually transition from a fossil-dependent economy to a more sustainable way of life.

About the laboratory

We engineer bacteria and their metabolic and regulatory pathways for understanding and biotechnology and educate new generations of microbiologists/bioengineers at Masaryk University. Our long-term ambition is to combine microbiology with molecular biology, biochemistry, and bioinformatics, and work on interdisciplinary projects that contribute to the fundamental knowledge of the microbial systems studied but also have significant application potential.

For detailed insight into the microbial metabolism and physiology and for more efficient valorization of substrates from waste materials, we modify microorganisms and their biochemical pathways using state-of-the-art methods of synthetic biology, metabolic and protein engineering.

Our mission

We want to foster the scientific curiosity and societal responsibility of our students, stimulate better public awareness of microbial biotechnologies and their role in the knowledge-based bioeconomy, and perform excellent innovative research that will contribute to the sustainable development of our society.

Courses for students

The laboratory delivers a course and practical classes in Special Methods for Analysis of Microorganisms (Bi6721 and Bi6721c) and a course Bioengineering of Microorganisms (Bi7034) for undergraduate students.

Contact

Pavel Dvořák, Ph.D.
Head of the laboratory

E-mail: pdvorak@sci.muni.cz
Phone: +420 549 49 3396

Adress

We have been supported by

Pavel is a proud holder of the Masaryk Award in Science and Humanities (MASH Junior) by the Grant Agency of Masaryk University (GAMU) and a former Marie-Sklodowska Curie Actions (MSCA) Fellow.