Centres of Excellence in Hungary
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Centres of Excellence in Hungary

Biological Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences
H-6701 Szeged, Temesvári krt. 62., P.O.Box 521, Hungary
Phone: 36-62-432-232, Fax: 36-62-432-576


The Biological Research Center (BRC) is an independent scientific organization for molecular and cellular biology in Hungary. The staff of 500 includes 239 scientists of international recognition.

The BRC is a consortium of 5 Institutes, 4 of them are located in Szeged and one in Budapest. The centre is governed by the Board of Directors, headed by a General Director elected periodically from among the Directors of the individual Institutes. Scientific activity is organized in research teams dealing with various aspects of molecular biology directly related to the improvement of quality of life.

An International Training Course, open for young scientists from all over the word, in particular from the Central/Eastern European countries (CEEC), has been running at BRC for 28 years. BRC scientists actively and successfully take part in the EU 5th Framework Programme. To facilitate 5th FP participation, BRC has been trusted with the role of serving as the domestic Liaison Office for the "Cell Factory" Key Action. BRC provides home for the UNESCO Environmental Biology Chair and the Department of Biotechnology of the University of Szeged.

The current position and future potential of the BRC to sustain its leading role in modern molecular and cellular biology in Hungary, and in the CEEC region, has been favourably judged by an European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) committee. The "first ever" independent evaluation carried out on a Central/Eastern European research establishment concluded in 1999:

"The BRC has, since its opening in 1971, emerged as a world center in its area of research. This is an astounding achievement under difficult circumstances. A group of outstanding directors...managed to generate and maintain a level of excellence that Hungary can be proud of. The EMBO committee was most impressed by the high standards of the Center. Out of the 46 groups, the Committee evaluated 16 groups as very good or excellent. These groups are world class. The most outstanding achievements were in the areas of plant biology and developmental genetics. This level of excellence is even more impressive considering the level of funding the BRC. The BRC have an overall annual budget of about 9 million DM. A similar centre of excellence in these areas biological research in countries of the European Union would certainly have a budget more than five-fold higher! This is a remarkable difference. The situation is indeed critical for the BRC and Hungarian research in general."

Incidentally, the projects rated excellent by the EMBO evaluation almost exactly match the work packages of the Centre of Excellence proposal. The topics include plant biotechnology, artificial chromosomes, developmental biology and biological energy production. In addition, a new national initiative, called Biotechnology2000, has been introduced, which specifically targets the development of the industrial sector relevant to BRC interests. This focused program will devote around 40 million Euros to the development of a competitive biotechnology industry in selected national priority areas.

BRC scientists take part in international research networking. There are several active participants in the various COST Actions and EUREKA projects, others take leading part in European Science Foundation, EMBO activities and the only CEEC member of the External Advisory Group to the 5th FP Cell Factory key action is a BRC scientist as well. Particularly strong institutional links have been developed with the ICGEB Centre in Trieste (Italy), the Max Planck Institut für Züchtunsforschung in Cologne (Germany), and the Institut des Sciences Vegetales, CNRS, Gif-sur-Yvette (France).

With the help of the Centre of Excellence support from the EU, BRC will focus on further improving its scientific performance and extending its activity to education and practical application.

The teaching activities of BRC scientists will remain a high priority, in particular at graduate and postgraduate level. Since International Training Course and the UNESCO Chair courses are attended by students from the neighboring countries, these activities have direct regional impact as well.

The detailed research programme and the results (scientific publications) can be found on our homepage: http://www.szbk.u-szeged.hu/



Institute of Biophysics
Director: Pál Ormos pali@nucleus.szbk.u-szeged.hu

Research units:
Laboratory of Membrane Bioenergetics
Laboratory of Molecular Neurobiology
Laboratory of Membrane Structure and Dynamics
Laboratory of Microbial Gas Metabolism

Selected publications:

  1. Dér, A., Száraz, S., Tóth-Boconádi, R., Tokaji Z., Keszthelyi L. and Stoeckenius. W.
    Alternative translocation of protons and halide ions by bacteriorhodopsin.
    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88(11), 4751-4755. (1991)

  2. Galajda, P. and Ormos, P.
    Complex micromachines produced and driven by light.
    Applied Physics Letters, 78, 249-251 (2001)

  3. Hanczár, T., Bodrossy, L., Csáki, R., Murrell, J.C. and Kovács K.L.
    Hydrogen driven methane oxidation in Methylococcus capsulatus (Bath).
    Arch. Microbiol., 177, 167-172. (2002)

  4. Hoyk, Zs., Párducz, Á., and Theodosis, D.T.
    The highly sialylated isoform of the neural cell adhesion molecule is required for estradiol-induced morphological synaptic plasticity in the adult arcuate nucleus.
    Eur. J Neurosci., 13/4, 649-656, (2001)

  5. Kota, Z., Horvath, L.I., Droppa, M., Horvath, G., Farkas, T., and Pali, T.
    Protein assembly and heat stability in developing thylakoid membranes during greening.
    Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99(19), 12149-12154. (2002)



Institute of Biochemistry
Director: László Vígh vigh@nucleus.szbk.u-szeged.hu

Research units:
Membrane-Lipid and Molecular Stress BiologyProjects
Neurobiology Projects
Eukaryotic Molecular Biology Projects
Nucleic Acid Research Projects

Selected publications:

  1. Darula, Zs., Kövér, K.E., Monory, K., Borsodi, A., Makó, E., Rónai, A., Tourwé, D., Péter, A., Tóth, G.: Deltorphin II analogues with 6-hydroxy-2-aminotetralin-2-carboxylic acid in position 1. J. Med. Chem. 43:1359-1366, 2000.

  2. Fábián, G., Bozó, B., Szikszay, M., Horváth, G., Coscia, C.J., Szűcs, M.: Chronic morphine-induced changes in mu-opioid receptors and G proteins of different subcellular loci in rat brain. J. Pharmacol. Exp. Ther. 302: 774-780, 2002.

  3. Kiss, A., Pósfai, Gy., Zsurka, G., Raskó, T., Venetianer, P.: Role of DNA minor groove interactions in substrate recognition by the M.SinI and MEcoRII DNA (cytosine-5) methyltransferase. Nucl. Acids Res. 29: 3188-3194, 2001.

  4. Kitajka, K., Puskás, L.G., Zvara, Á., Hackler, L., Barcelo-Coblijn, G., Yeo, Y.K., Farkas, T.: The role of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids in brain: Modulation of rat brain gene expression by dietary n-3 fatty acids. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 99: 2619-2624, 2002.

  5. Mátés, L., Korpos, É., Deák, F., Liu, Z.Q., Beier, D.R., Aszódi, A., Kiss, I.: Comparative analysis of the mouse and human genes (Matn2 and MATN2) for matrilin-2, a filament-forming protein widely distributed in extracellular matrices. Matrix Biol. 21: 163-174, 2002.

  6. Monory, K., Bourin, M.C., Spetea, M., Tömböly, Cs., Tóth, G., Matthes, H.W., Kieffer, B.L., Hanoune, J., Borsodi A.: Specific activation of the mu opioid receptor (MOR) by endomorphin 1 and endomorphin 2. Eur. J. Neurosci. 12:577-584, 2000.

  7. Muratoglu, S., Georgieva, S., Pápai, G., Scheer, E., Izzet Enünlü1, Komonyi, O., Cserpán, I., Lebedeva, E., Nabirochkina, E., Udvardy, A., Tora, L., Boros, I.: Two different Drosophila ADA2 homologues are present in distinct GCN5 histone acetyltransferase-containing complexes. Mol. Cell. Biol., közlésre elfogadva.

  8. Perna, N.T., Plunkett, G., Burland, V., Mau, B., Glasner, J.D., Rose, D.J., Mayhew, G.F., Evans, P.S., Gregor, J., Kirkpatrick, H.A., Pósfai, Gy., Hackett, J., Klink, S., Boutin, A., Shao, Y., Miller, L., Grotbeck, E.J., Davis, N.W., Lim, A., Dimalanta, E.T., Potamousis, K.D., Apodaca, J., Anantharaman, T.S., Lin, J., Yen, G., Schwartz, D.C., Welch, R.A., Blattner, F.R.: Genome sequence of enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7. Nature 409: 529-533, 2001.

  9. Török, Zs., Goloubinoff, P., Horváth, I., Tsvetkova, N.M., Glatz, A., Balogh, G., Varvasovszki, V., Los, D.A., Vierling, E., Crowe, J., Vígh, L.: Synechocystis HSP17 is an amphitropic protein that stabilizes heat-stressed membranes and binds denatured proteins for subsequent chaperone-mediated refolding. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 98: 3098-3103, 2001.



Institute of Genetics
Director: István Raskó rasko@nucleus.szb.u-szeged.hu

Research units:
Laboratories Of Nitrogen Fixation
Laboratories Of Developmental Genetics
Laboratories Of Human Molecular Genetics
Laboratories Of Molecular Immunology

Selected publications:

  1. Mihály J., Hogga I., Gausz J., Gyurkovics H., Karch F. (1997) In situ dissection of the Fab-7 region of the bithorax complex into a chromatin domain boundary and a Polycomb-response element. Development 124 1809-1820.

  2. Csonka E, Cserpán I, Fodor K, Holló Gy, Katona R, Kereső J, Praznovszky T, Szakál B, Telenius A, Gary deJong, Udvardy A, Hadlaczky Gy. (2000) Novel generation of human satellite DNA-based artificial chromosomes in mammalian cells. J. Cell Science 113: 3207-3216.

  3. Kalmár T, Bachrati CZ, Marcsik A, Raskó I. (2000) A simple and efficient method for PCR amplifiable DNA extraction from ancient bones. Nucleic Acids Res. 28: e67.

  4. Bajusz I, Sipos L, Györgypál Z, EA Carrington, RS Jones, Gausz J, Gyurkovics H. (2001) The Trithorax-mimic allele of Enhancer of zeste renders active domains of target genes accessible to Polycombe-group dependent silencing in Drosophila melanogaster. Genetics 159:1135-1150.

  5. B. Oláh, E. Kiss, Z. Györgypál, J. Borzi, Gy. Cinege, Gy. Csanádi, J. Batut, A. Kondorosi, I. Dusha (2001) Mutation in the ntrR gene, a member of the vap gene family, increases the symbiotic efficiency of Sinorhizobium meliloti. Mol. Plant Microbe Interactions Vol.14. 7:887-894.

  6. Endre G, Kereszt A, , Kevei Z, Mihacea S, Kaló P, Kiss GB. (2002) A receptor kinase gene regulating symbiotic nodule development. Nature 417:962-966.

  7. Sinka R, Jankovics F, Somogyi K, Szlanka T, Lukácsovich T, Erdélyi M. (2002) poirot, a new regulatory gene of the Drosophila oskar acts at the level of the short Oskar protein isoform Development 129:3469-3478



Institute of Plant Biology
Director: Imre Vass imre@nucleus.szbk.u-szeged.hu

Research units:
Laboratory of Molecular Stress- and Photobiology
Laboratory of Plant Chrono- and Photobiology
Laboratory of Plant Lipid Function and Structure
Laboratory for Thylakoid Membrane Energization
Laboratory of RNA Processing
Laboratory of Cell Division and Differentiation
Laboratory of Functional Cell Biology
Laboratory for Arabidopsis Molecular Genetics

Selected publications:

  1. Magyar, Z., Mészáros, T., Miskolczi, P., Deák, M., Fehér, A., Brown, S., Kondorosi, É., Athanasidas, A., Pongor, S., Bilgin, M., Bakó, L., Koncz, Cs. and Dudits D. (1997) Cell cycle phase specificity of putative cyclin-dependent kinase variants in synchronized alfalfa cells. The Plant Cell, 9: 223-235.

  2. Kis, M., Zsiros, O., Farkas, T.,. Wada, H, Nagy, F., and Gombos, Z. (1998) Light-induced expression of fatty acid desaturase genes. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci.USA, 95: 4209-4214.

  3. Máté, Z., Sass, L., Szekeres, M., Vass, I. and Nagy, F. (1998) "UV-B induced differential transcription of psbA genes encoding the D1 protein of Photosystem II in the cyanobacterium Synechocystis 6803" J.Biol. Chem., 273, 17439-17444.

  4. Deák, M., Horváth, V. G., Davletova, S., Török, K., Sass, L., Vass, I., Barna, B., Király, Z. and Dudits, D. (1999) Plants expressing the iron-binding protein, ferritin, ectopically are tolerant to oxidative damage and pathogens. Nat. Biotech., 17: 192-196.

  5. Kircher, S., Kozma-Bognár, L., Kim, L., Ádám, É., Harter, K., Schäfer, E., Nagy, F. (1999) Light quality and quantity dependent nuclear translocation of phyA and phyB photoreceptors in higher plants. Plant Cell, 11, 1445-1456.

  6. Simidjiev, I., Stoylova, S., Amentisch, H., Jávorfi, T., Mustárdy, L., Laggner, P., Holzenburg, A., and Garab, G. (2000) Self-assembly of large, ordered lamellae from non-bilayer lipids and integral membrane proteins in vitro. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 97: 1473-1476.

  7. Jády, B.E. and Kiss, T. (2001) A small nucleolar RNA functions both in 2'-O-ribose methylation and pseudouridylation of the U5 spliceosomal RNA. EMBO J., 20, 541-551.

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