The national infrastructure C4SYS - Centre for Systems Biology is a priority infrastructure project on the national roadmap, and currently in its preparatory phase, building on close collaboration between the Academy of Sciences (Institute of Microbiology, Prague, Institute of Nanobiology and Structural Biology, Nove Hrady, Global Change Research Center, Brno), the University of South Bohemia, and Masaryk University, Brno. It has the ambition to concentrate the knowledge potential in the field of systems biology in the Czech Republic and to connect the diverted systems biology research at the Academy of Sciences and various universities in the Czech Republic to the european infastructure (ISBE). C4SYS will enable Czech ad European laboratories to model, conduct experiments and proceed other activities, where they cannot be done locally, but which are required for their systems biology research. This virtual platform is providing the research community resources and services for the implementation of cutting-edge research and development internationally. This is an essential point because Systems Biology requires significantly more multidisciplinary facilities and international access than are typically present in any single institute. The infrastructure was initiated in 2009 as a divison of the former Institute of Systems Biology and Ecology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and became part of the Czech roadmap as a promising project in the 2010 update, and a high-priority project in the 2011 update. In 2014 the above mentioned institutions signed a memorandum of understanding, that finalizes the preparatory phase and initiates the construction phase that is planned for 2015-2017.

Publications