In our laboratory, we focus on long-term studies of decanol droplets in sodium decanoate solution. These simple systems exhibit chemotactic movement, collective behavior, and shape changes that resemble features of living organisms.

Chemobrionics is a key area of systems chemistry, helping us understand complex self-assembling structures relevant to both the origin of life and the development of advanced materials. In our lab, we focus on chemical gardens, especially on crossing different types of seeds from various salts to observe the emergence of new “chemical plants” — a kind of chemical Mendelian experiment. We also created the short film Chemobrionics, and Jitka Čejková served as working group leader and science communication coordinator in the European COST Action on chemobrionics, as well as editor of a special journal issue on the topic.

A liquid marble is a liquid droplet encapsulated in a hydrophobic powder that adheres to the liquid surface.  In our laboratory, we study liquid marbles as innovative micro‑bio‑reactors for bacterial cultivation and explore oil-based liquid marbles for advanced applications.

In the past, our lab focused extensively on pattern formation in Dictyostelium discoideum. Although we are no longer actively running experiments with this fascinating microorganism, we have collected a range of interesting results and videos. We remain open to discussions and collaborations related to this topic.

We are currently focusing on cell encapsulation as part of the INTER-MICRO project, which aims to study microbial communication. In our lab, we encapsulate yeast cells in alginate, and have demonstrated biologically triggered release from the capsules.