History of Department of Histology and Embryology
1945 - 1946
Medical Faculty in Hradec Kralove was established in 1945 as a part of the Prague Faculty of Medicine. It started its educational activities on 25th November, 1945. Because there was no histologist at that time in Hradec Kralove, tuition in histology was first performed by prof. Antonin Fingerland, M.D., Ph.D. from Department of Pathology and later by Associate Professor Krajnik from Dept. Biology.
1946 - 1970 Associate Professor Vlastimil Vrtiš
In 1946, Associate Professor Vlastimil Vrtiš (who worked in Veterinary Faculty) in Brno was asked to come to Hradec Kralove and become a chairman of the Department of Histology and Embryology. In the following years he became a Vice-dean and Dean of the Medical Faculty. Until 1970 he held an office as a head of the Department of Histology and Embryology. He was engaged in a study of microscopic structure of the skin, sense organs and teeth. He also wrote up memories of the establishment and development of Medical Faculty in Hradec Králové. He worked in more than 25 social clubs and societies. Assistants and volunteers who worked in the department under prof. Vrtiš chairmanship included J. Ev. Jirásek (who became later professor and chairman of Institute for the Care of Mother and Child in Prague and K. Smetana (later professor and director of Institute of Hematology and Blood Transfusion in Prague).
The main representatives of the Vrtiš’s school are listed below:
- MUDr. Ilja Hradil who established histochemical and electron microscopical laboratory; he focused on the study of the skin, liver and cartilage.
- MUDr. Zdeněk Charvát studied degeneration and regeneration of peripheral nerves and healing of the skin wounds.
- MUDr. Josef Špaček (appointed Professor of Pathology in 1997) concentrated on the ultrastructural neurocytology and 3-dimensional reconstructions of the nervous tissue – http://synapses.clm.utexas.edu/lab/spacek/josef.html
- MUDr. Jiří Šmahel studied the healing of the skin transplants
1970 - 1971 Ilja Hradil, M.D. Ph.D.
Ilja Hradil, M.D. Ph.D., became a chairman of the Department of Histology and Embryology after retirement of Prof. Vrtiš in 1970. However, during „normalisation period“ he was forced to leave the Medical Faculty in 1972. Then he had been working for 18 years as a general practitioner. He came back to Department of Histology and Embryology in 1990 as a lecturer. In 1993 he appointed Professor of Histolology and Embryology. In 1994 he worked in Dept. of Social Medicine as a head of branch for Practical and Family Medicine where he put the background for the establishment of the novel subject.
In the Department of histology and embryology, Prof. Hradil established histochemical and electron microscopical laboratory. He studied histological structure of many tissues incl. the skin, liver and cartilage. For many years he co-operated with the Tissue Bank. As a teacher he contributed a lot to a modern teaching of histology and embryology.
1971 - 1978 Assoc. Prof. Zdeněk Charvát, M.D. Ph.D.
In 1971, Assoc. Prof. Zdeněk Charvát, M.D. Ph.D., became a head of the department. He had been working in the department since 1951. Because of his active knowledge of English he was appointed as an expert to Iraqi Medical Faculty in Baghdad where he worked in 1960-1962 as a professor of Microscopic Anatomy. In 1967-1970 he worked as a Department Head in Medical Faculty in Lagos, Nigeria. In his scientific work he concentrated on neurohistology (synapses in the cerebellum, degeneration and regeneration of peripheral nerves) and healing of skin wounds.
1978 - 1983 František Morávek, M.D. Ph.D.
After departure of Assoc. Prof. Charvát to Nigeria in 1978, František Morávek, M.D. Ph.D. became a head of the department. He had been working in Dept. of Histology and Embryology since 1953. In 1956 he became a head of the Department of Radiobiology (at Military Medical Academy in Hradec Kralove) where he established a histological laboratory. In 1973 he returned to Dept. of Histology and Embryology and participated in teaching students of dentistry. As a head of the department he worked until 1983. He specialized in radiohistology; he examined the effects of ionizing radiation on living organisms and studied post radiation syndromes in bone marrow and gastrointestinal tract.
1983 - 1984 Danuše Šubrtová M.D.
After retirement of Dr. F. Morávek, Danuše Šubrtová M.D. became a provisional head of department for the period of one academic year.
1984 - 1998 Stanislav Němeček, M.D.
Since August 1, 1984, Stanislav Němeček, M.D. had been appointed a head of the Department of Histology and Embryology. Until this time he had been engaged in Department of Neurosurgery as a clinical neuropathologist. At that time he already had excellent knowledge of microscopic morphology and histopathology and rich experience from his stays abroad in Germany (1968– 70) and USA (1980-81). Although he was specialized in clinical neuropathology (pathobiology of brain tumours and experimental spinal cord injury), he also carried out a detailed study of normal structures of nervous and endocrine tissues. After his arrival to Department of Histology and Embryology he realized a fundamental transformation in organization of tuition and experimental work with accentuation of interdisciplinary concepts. He defended his D.Sc. degree in pathological anatomy in 1986 and was appointed a full Professor in Histology and Embryology in 1991.
The main representatives of the Němeček’s school are listed below:
- doc. MUDr. Danuše Šubrtová, CSc., focused namely on transmission electron microscopical structure of the skin, neural transplants and experimental pathomorphology
- doc. MUDr. Yvona Mazurová, CSc., specialized in experimental pathomorphology of the heart, neural transplantations and experimental models of Huntington’s disease
- MUDr. Josef Mráz, CSc. devoted to the study of radiation injury to the CNS and skin and to experimental liver injury
- prof. MUDr. Jaroslav Mokrý, Ph.D. focused on cell immunophenotypization, on neural grafting, stem cell biology and experimental cell therapy
Since 1998 Jaroslav Mokrý, M.D. Ph.D.
Jaroslav Mokrý, M.D. Ph.D. became a chairman of Department of Histology and Embryology in September 1998. He studied a general medicine at Medical Faculty in Hradec Králové and he started to work in Department of Histology and Embryology as a pregraduate student. His scientific student work was awarded Hromada’s Prize, Rector’s Prizes for his 1st placement in student competition for the best work in medical sciences in Czechoslovakia in 1987 and 1989 as well as 1st place in international competition in 1987. After his graduation in 1990 he continued in his work in Department of Histology and Embryology and studied cell differentiation after neural grafting with the use of specific antibodies and established Immunohistochemical Laboratory. In 1993 – 1994 he was on a study stay at the Department of Human Anatomy at Oxford University where he was engaged in cultivation of dopaminergic neurons and became familiar with cell cultivation. After his return he established a Tissue Culture Laboratory and started to cultivate neural stem cells. In 1996 he was awarded a Young Histochemist Award from International Federation of Societies of Histochemistry and Cytochemistry in Kyoto. As a head of department he reconstructed the other laboratories and put basis to Fluorescent Laboratory. In 2006 he was appointed a full Professor in Histology and Embryology at Charles University in Prague. Since 2009, he acts as a president of Czech Society fo Histo- and Cytochemistry.
He specializes on molecular morphological detection methods to examine cell phenotypisation and differentiation, stem cell biology, cell transplantation, regenerative medicine and angiogenesis (click here to see relevant publications).