About
My research focuses on the biology of microbial eukaryotes: phytoplankton, heterotrophs and parasites. It combines environmental sampling, primarily along the coast, molecular and cell biology and computational biology techniques. I have a joint affiliation at the University of Southampton and Czech Academy of Sciences.
Research
Research groups
Research interests
- Marine phytoplankton and parasites
- Symbiotic interactions
- Biodiversity, evolution, genomics
- Metabolism and photosynthesis
- Bioluminescence
Current research
Current projects include bioluminescence in marine dinoflagellates, phytoplankton evolution, metabolism of phosphorus, photosynthetic pigments, protistan hormones and parasite genomics. We use Phaeodactulum tricornutum, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Tetrahymena thermophila as experimental models.
Research projects
Active projects
Publications
Biography
Jan obtained his undergraduate and Master degrees from the University of South Bohemia, in which he helped discover a novel alga related to apicomplexan parasites. He continued studying evolution of apicomplexan parasitism and plastid organelles during his PhD degree at the University of British Columbia, which he completed in 2013. Jan subsequently held independent fellowships at San Diego State University (CIFAR Global Scholar, 2014-15) and University College London (Excellence Research Fellow, 2016-2019) during which he discovered new groups of eukaryotes and studied phytoplankton evolution. In January 2021, Jan started a research group at the Institute of Microbiology Trebon, Czechia, which he now co-leads with Eva Horakova. In December 2021, Jan joined the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Southampton as a Lecturer.