Cell scientist to watch – Hana Polasek-Sedlackova

ABSTRACT Hana Polasek-Sedlackova is a group leader at the Institute of Biophysics (IBP) of the Czech Academy of Sciences (Czech Republic). She completed her doctoral work and a short postdoc with Jiri Lukas at the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), where she uncovered new roles for dormant minichromosome maintenance (MCM) helicases and metabolic inputs in safeguarding genome integrity. In 2022, Hana returned to the Czech Republic to establish her independent research group at the IBP, focusing on the molecular mechanisms of DNA replication and genome stability. We spoke with Hana over Zoom to learn more about her career, her insights on collaborative research, her engineering hobby and her love for the quiet countryside life.