Activities of the Institute
Professor Jozef Zlatoš celebrated his significant jubilee
It was 1935 when MUDr. Július Ledényi, then associate professor of anatomy at the Comenius University, published his Slovak nomenclature - Nomina Anatomica - through the Slovak Matrix in Turčianske Sväté Martin. Maybe it is a coincidence, maybe it is fate, but in the same year Jozef Zlatoš was born - the future professor of anatomy at the Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University in Bratislava. To this day, he still sees the work Slovak Nomenclature of Body Science as his “twin”, which influenced his professional direction.
Prof. MUDr. Jozef Zlatoš, DrSc. was born on April 25, 1935 in Pruské near
Ilava. After successfully passing his final exams at the Gymnasium in Trenčín in 1953, he began studying general medicine at the Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University in Bratislava. During his studies, he actively participated in student scientific and professional activities at the Department of Anatomy and presented his research results on the variability of the brachial plexus in cats at student conferences in Bratislava and Prague. From his fourth year of study, he became an assistant researcher, and from his fifth year, he became an assistant at the Department of Anatomy. From the end of his university studies in 1959 until his retirement in 2007, he devoted his entire working life to teaching at the Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University in Bratislava, first at the Department of Anatomy (later the Institute of Anatomy) and, from 1990, at the Institute of Histology and Embryology. Even after his retirement, he continued to work as a professor emeritus at Comenius University.
MUDr. Jozef Zlatoš defended his candidate thesis (CSc.) in 1968 and was
appointed associate professor of anatomy in 1974. In the field of normal anatomy, histology, and embryology, he obtained the title of Doctor of Medical Sciences (DrSc.) in 1992 and was appointed professor in 1997. He specialized mainly in functional neuroanatomy and was a follower of Professor Gustáv Čierny's neuroanatomical school. His main interest was the microtopography of motor neurons in the spinal cord of cats and humans, which was based on the needs of neurosurgical practice.
He constructed a stereotactic apparatus, which he used to construct topographic maps of various parts of the human spinal cord. Professor Zlatoš's device is also depicted in a review article on the world history of spinal cord stereotaxy by Eric M. Gabriel and Blaine S. Nashold in the Journal of Neurosurgery (1996). His scientific work resulted in the creation of the first stereotactic atlas of the spinal cord, which formed the core of his doctoral dissertation.
During his career, Professor Zlatoš completed a three-month study stay with
Professor Romanes in Edinburgh, England (1971) and later at the Faculty of Medicine in Skopje, in what was then Yugoslavia (1984). As part of his teaching activities, he was secretary of the Anatomical Institute of the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius University for 20 years, starting in 1970. In 1990, he took over the leadership of the Institute of Histology and Embryology at the Faculty of Medicine at Comenius University from Professor Karol Kapeller and led this department until 2005. As part of his teaching career, Professor Zlatoš also devoted himself to popularizing anatomy. He was the co-author of Zdravoveda (Health Science, 1989) and the color anatomical atlas Ľudské telo (The Human Body, 2004).
In May 2025, we also commemorated the significant life anniversary of Professor Jozef Zlatoš at the Institute of Histology and Embryology of the Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University. We are very pleased that after a festive lunch with the institute staff, the honoree received the Golden Medal “Propter Merita” of the Slovak Medical Society from Prof. MUDr. Juraj Payer, PhD., MPH, FRCP, FEFIM, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Comenius University and First Vice-President of the
Slovak Medical Society.
Ad multos annos, profesor!
Ivan Varga and Renáta Mikušová, on behalf of the team at the Institute of Histology and Embryology, Faculty of Medicine, Comenius University
Short-term work placement at the Faculty of Medicine, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, December 2024
Success of PhD student Mgr. Feitscherová, November 2024
On the occasion of the Students' Day, on 18 November 2024, from the hands of the Rector of Comenius University in Bratislava, prof. JUDr. Marek Števček, DrSc., also received an award from a full-time PhD student of the Institute of Histology and Embryology of the Faculty of Medicine of Charles University, Mgr. Claudia Feitscherová. The topic of her research is the distribution of immune cells within selected organs of the reproductive system and their influence on fertility. She conducts her research using immunohistochemistry methods. She has published her previous research results in 8 indexed scientific outputs, including journals such as Frontiers in Cell & Developmental Biology or Experimental Biology & Medicine. She is also fully involved in the teaching activities of the training institute, as well as in the promotion of human anatomy, histology and embryology in the framework of scientific popularization events such as the European Researchers' Night.
Congratulations Claudia, we are happy for your success and fingers crossed for the finalisation of your dissertation!
11th Baltic Morphology Meeting 2024, November 2024
The traditional Anatomical Congress of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia was held this year at the Institute of Anatomy and Anthropology (Anatomicum) of Riga Stradiņš University, in the capital of Latvia. Among the invited lecturers were prof. Andreas Winkelmann, Head of the Institute of Anatomy at Bradenburg Medical School (Germany), prof. Michal Polguj, Head of the Institute of Anatomy at the Medical University of Lodz (Poland), prof. Dainius Pauža, Head of the Institute of Anatomy at the Lithuanian University of Health Sciences (Lithuania), prof. David Kachlík, Head of the Institute of Anatomy at the 2nd Medical Faculty of Charles University in Prague, as well as Prof. Ivan Varga from Bratislava. In his lecture, Prof. Varga presented the results of immunohistochemical research on uterine Natural Killer cells in relation to implantation and recurrent miscarriages, which he carries out together with his PhD student, Lenka Lapides, M.D., and the Head of the Institute of Pathological Anatomy of the Faculty of Medicine of Charles University, prof. Pavel Babál.
