The Free Academy: Zuzana Ozaniak Střížová. Our Immunity Can Do Miracles, But Stress Changes All the Rules
- Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
- When: April 24, 2025, 19:00 – 21:00
The immune system is crucial for our survival: It protects us from infections, promotes healing and actively fights cancer cells. Just as the heart gives us a warning in the form of high blood pressure or an accelerated heart rate, our immune system also sends signals when something is wrong. Unfortunately, we often ignore them. Chronic stress has a devastating impact on immunity, contributing to immunodeficiency, inflammation, autoimmune diseases and cancer. Yet we do not avoid it in modern society and the sense of being irreplaceable can cost us our health and life.
Associate professor Zuzana Ozaniak Střížová is a Czech immunologist, physician, and scientist working at the Second Faculty of Medicine of Charles University and Motol University Hospital. She specialises in treating patients with immune disorders and researches the role of immune cells in cancer as well as the impact of stress on the immune system. She has received prestigious prizes for her scientific work, including the L’Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science award, while in 2024 she was recognised by Forbes magazine as one of the most significant Czech scientists. She is the author of the book Imunita v otázkách a odpovědích (Immunity in Questions and Answers).