Harnoš lab

🐸What do we work with?
We study early Xenopus frog embryos: a powerful model for developmental biology. 

🔬Why frogs?
Their embryos are large, develop outside the body, and are ideal for live imaging and experimental manipulation. 

🧪Why Xenopus?
Xenopus was the first reliable model used for human fertility testing (the Hogben test) and later became the most widely used amphibian model in biomedical research. 

🧠What do we study?
Neural tube formation, neural crest cell migration, and the signaling mechanisms that shape developing tissues.
And more. 

Want to discover more? Click the link to our short reportages on Czech Radio or Czech TV broadcasts (both in Czech), and the popular biology blog, The Node (in English).

Lab Head

Scientific autobiography

My research explores how cells signal, move, and organize tissues during development.
After PhD training in Germany and postdoctoral work in New York on WNT/PCP signaling in Xenopus, I now run an independent lab at Masaryk University.

We use live embryos, advanced imaging, and molecular tools to address fundamental questions in developmental and disease biology. 🔬

🧬 Field: cellular signaling

🇨🇿/🇩🇪 PhD: Brno/Wurzburg (molecular signaling)
🇺🇸 Postdoc: New York (Xenopus, PCP)
🇨🇿 PI: Masaryk University since 2020 (Xenopus)

🔬 Approach: live imaging, biosensors, proteomics, Xenopus 🐸

Fellowships, Grants, and Awards 

• *2026 – 2028: MUNI Junior Star (#MUNI/JS/1952/2025), Grant Agency of Masaryk University, Czechia
• *2025 – 2026: MSCAfellow5_MUNI (#22_010/0003229), Czech MEYS, Czechia
• *2024 – 2026: Grant in the Standard/Senior category (#24-10622S), Czech Science Foundation, Czechia
• 2023: Hemsley Fellowship (#203103), Xenopus course, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratories, NY, USA (declined due to family reasons)
• 2022 – 2024: Grant in the Standard/Senior category (#22-06405S), Czech Science Foundation, Czechia
• 2022 – 2024: Science & Humanities Award Junior (#MUNI/J/0004/2021), Grant Agency of Masaryk University, Czechia
• 2020: “Seal of Excellence” in MSCA-IF-2020 (#101028952), European Commission, Brussels
• 2018 – 2019: “Excellent Results” Grant (#MUNI/E/0533/2018), Grant Agency of Masaryk University, Czechia
• 2017 – 2017: EMBO Short-term Fellowship (#ASTF 687-2016), University of Wurzburg, Germany
• 2016 – 2016: Mobility program “Free mover”, University of Wurzburg, Germany

*Current funding

OUR RESEARCH

Cells need to know where they are and where to go.
We study planar cell polarity (PCP) — the way cells align and coordinate their behavior across a tissue.

Polarity is usually seen as a simple directional guide. 🧭 We think it does much more.