RNDr. Jan Kamiš

Job Position: Professional staff - Laboratory of Arbovirology

Contact details

Phone: +420 38 777 5463
E-mail: jan.kamis@paru.cas.cz
Room: 324

Description

My journey in the Laboratory of Arbovirology started in 2019, as a master's degree student I studied orthohantaviruses in rodents. In 2021 I started to work as a member of the professional staff and since 2023 I have become a Ph.D. student.

I am interested in ecoepidemiology of recognised and potential zoonotic pathogens of human. I am closely involved in several ongoing projects in the laboratory, particularly with the project Tick-borne bacterial diseases in urban environments (also known as “Ticks in the City”) and the optimisation of TBEV detection in human patients. I focus on pathogenic viruses and bacteria in ticks and vertebrate hosts (rodents, insectivores, birds…), mainly on the viruses from the Flaviviradae family (TBEV, USUV), genus Orbivirus (Tribeš/Kemerovo virus), family Hantaviridae (DOBV, TULV, PUUV, SWSV) and others. From the bacterial world, I am interested in Borrelia, Anaplasma and Rickettsia genera.

In the laboratory, I specialise in sterile work with infectious agents in BSL2 and BSL3 conditions. I am experienced in the detection of viruses and bacteria - from the processing of the primal sample (dissection, homogenization, isolation of RNA/DNA) through molecular biolog screening methods (PCR, multiplex qPCR, RT-PCR, electrophoresis, plaque titration, isolation of viruses in tissue cultures) to the pathogen identification (Sanger sequencing, WGS) and interpretation of phylogenetic realtionships. I am also used to working with tissue cultures, plasmids, and in the BSL3 laboratory, I work with viruses (SARS-CoV-2, TBEV…) and mouse models. I also provide OSH, and BSL2/BSL3 biohazard training for our employees. 

Curriculum vitae

EDUCATION:

Bachelor's degree (2016 – 2020)

• Study program: Biology
• Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice
• Bachelor's thesis: Phylogenetic relationships of coccidia parasitizing striped field mice (Apodemus agrarius) based on sequences of the COX3 gene.

Master's degree (2020 – 2022)

• Study program: Parasitology
• Faculty of Science, University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice
• Master's thesis: Rodents as reservoirs of hantaviruses

Rigorous proceeding (10/2022)

• Field: Parasitology
• Rigorous thesis: Orthohantaviruses in the reservoir and atypical hosts in the Czech Republic: spillover infection and indication of virus-specific tissue tropism

Publications