On 16th November 2022, students and scientists gathered at Josef Hlávka's castle in Lužany near Přeštice to celebrate the winners of this year's Josef Hlávka awards. The award ceremony was attended by the members of the Board of Directors of the "Josef, Marie and Zdeňka Hlávka Foundation", representatives of universities and the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The event included a concert in the castle chapel and a tour of the Lužany castle.
The Josef Hlávka Award is intended for talented students in bachelor, master, or doctoral studies who have demonstrated exceptional skills and creative thinking in their field and for talented young researchers of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic under 33 years of age. Among the eleven awarded students from Charles University was also a representative of the Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové, PharmDr. Rona Karahoda, Ph.D., who was awarded for her exceptional results during her postgraduate studies.
The dissertation thesis of Dr. Karahoda (supervised by Prof. PharmDr. Frantisek Staud, Ph.D.) is a significant contribution to reproductive sciences due to its interdisciplinary nature bridging the fields of placental physiology, pathology, and the aspects of pharmacological interventions during pregnancy. The high quality and originality of her work is evidenced by 13 research articles published in highly prestigious journals (including seven first-author papers).
Recently, Dr. Karahoda has been awarded other highly valued national and international prizes for her research: In 2020, as a member of the Placenta in Health and Disease team, she won the national round of the Angelini University Award. Importantly, in September 2021, Dr. Karahoda received the prestigious Carl Ludwig Award by the Scandinavian Physiological Society as the first researcher in the Czech Republic.
Currently, Dr. Karahoda is an assistant professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology, Faculty of Pharmacy in Hradec Králové, and a member of the Placenta in Health and Disease team.
Her current research focuses on placental NLRP3 inflammasome signaling in gestational diabetes and the therapeutic potential of metformin, which is supported by the Czech Health Research Council.
Text: prof. PharmDr. František Štaud, Ph.D.
Photo: archive of Dr. Karahoda and Hlávka Foundation