The European Chemical Society (EuChemS) award for the best chemistry project in the European Union Contest for Young Scientist (EUCYS), which took place in Katowice, Poland, went to Janis Bojko, a student of the Faculty of Science, Palacký University. In the competition of 146 participants under 20 years of age, he succeeded with his paper Synthesis of new selective-dual inhibitors of cyclin-dependent kinases.
“It was a great honour just to be a part of this great event. The main goal for me was to enjoy the whole event. I met many great people from all over the world who made the whole competition worthwhile. It was absolutely impossible to compare the projects with each other, even from the same category, because each project issue was diametrically different from the other,” Janis Bojko said.
The student of Bioorganic Chemistry and Chemical Biology has been working on the synthesis of compounds with anticancer activity in the research group of Petr Cankař from the Department of Organic Chemistry for a long time. “Simply put, this is a study investigating the biological activity of new potential anticancer drugs against acute myeloid leukaemia (AML). I dealt with the synthesis of these compounds. A big thank you goes to all the colleagues with whom I worked,” added Bojko.
The talented student joined Petr Cankař’s research group already in 2021, while studying at the František Živný High School in Bohumín. “I have known Janis since the very beginning, when he came to our department as part of the Badatel (Researcher) project. It is obvious that he enjoys organic chemistry immensely. He is proactive and, outside of teaching, he actively seeks out short-term internships at various research institutions and commercial companies. We are now trying to prepare CDK2 inhibitors, on which we are collaborating with colleagues from the Department of Experimental Biology of the Faculty of Science and the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences. The fact that he succeeded in the EUCYS international competition made us very happy at the department,” Petr Cankař added.
The first edition of the EUCYS, then organised by the European Commission, was held in Brussels in 1989. Since then, the competition has been organised in the European City of Science chosen for that year. This year, 146 contestants under the age of 20 from thirty-eight countries took part. It is not possible to register for the competition, only the national organiser nominates the participants.