From October 6 to 17, 2025 RNDr. Ivana Timková, PhD., from the Center for Interdisciplinary Biosciences, TIP UPJŠ, completed a professional internship focused on mastering a new analytical technique that will soon be implemented in our laboratory.
The HOX assay is an ultrasensitive fluorescent method used to detect halides and study enzymatic dehalogenation. It is based on the oxidation of halides by a vanadium-dependent chloroperoxidase from Curvularia inaequalis, producing hypohalous acids that are subsequently detected using aminophenyl fluorescein. Compared to existing methods, the HOX assay offers up to a thousandfold increase in sensitivity and can detect bromide ions at concentrations below one picomole.
Under the guidance of Dr. Kovař (Loschmidt Laboratories, Brno, Czech Republic), Dr. Timková was trained in the production of VCPO peroxidase and in the precise execution and optimization of the HOX assay for her specific dehalogenases.
This internship was funded by the EU NextGenerationEU through the Recovery and Resilience Plan for Slovakia, under the project No. 09I03-03-V04-00112, and carried out in close collaboration with the project No. 09I02-03-V01-00021.
