The Institute of Experimental Medicine, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, is the leading institution in the Czech Republic for biomedical research, particularly in cell biology and pathology, neurobiology, neurophysiology, neuropathology, developmental toxicology and teratology, molecular pharmacology, immunopharmacology, molecular embryology, stem cells and nervous tissue regeneration. The Institute is an internationally recognized center in these fields, and as such it was selected as an EU Center of Excellence (MEDIPRA).

     The institute’s already-established position is documented by the extensive collaboration that exists between Institute scientists and their colleagues in Europe, North America, Asia and Australia. Recently, a number of foreign Ph.D. students, postdoctoral fellows, as well as senior scientists have been working in our departments, financed from our institutional budget, the EU Center of Excellence grant as well as from EU Marie Curie fellowships. The Institute organizes each year a number of international workshops, symposia and conferences as well as summer schools for young researchers.

     We are proud to collaborate with leading Czech institutions, namely with Charles University’s First, Second and Third Medical Faculties, the Faculty of Natural Sciences of Mendel University in Brno, the Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine (IKEM) of the Ministry of Health, the Regional Institute for Hygiene of Central Bohemia, the Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry ASCR, and the Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics ASCR. Scientists of the Institute are involved in both the pregraduate and postgraduate training of students. These ties have been strengthened by the founding of two joint organizations: the Department of Neuroscience has been unified with the Institute of Neuroscience of the Second Medical Faculty, Charles University, under the leadership of Professor Eva Sykova, and the Department of Cell Biology has organized a joint venture with the First Medical Faculty of Charles University, under the leadership of Professor Ivan Raska. Some departments are part of the national research Center for Cell Therapy and Tissue Repair (headed by Professor Sykova at the Institute of Neuroscience, Charles University).

     The Institute of Experimental Medicine itself currently has 12 departments. There are about 150 employees,including 88 university graduates. In addition, a number of pregraduate students and approximately 5-15 foreign students or visitors work in the Institute. The publication activity of the Institute is growing every year, and most of its publications appear in journals with high impact factors including Physiological Reviews, Nature, Cell, Trends in Neuroscience, Trends in Pharmacology, The Journal of Cell Biology, NeuroImage, Journal of Physiology, Journal of Cell Science, Molecular Pharmacology, Biophysical Journal, Carcinogenesis, Glia, Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism, Journal of Dental Research, Hippocampus, Leukemia and Journal of Leukocyte Biology.

     The current research areas in the Institute of Experimental Medicine are a result of its history. It was officially founded in 1975 by combining four medical research laboratories that had been organized twenty years before. Three of the laboratories had been affiliated with clinical departments of Charles University, i.e. the Department of Plastic Surgery, the Department of Ophthalmology, and the Department of Otorhinolaryngology. The fourth laboratory was closely connected with the Department of Histology of the First Medical Faculty and was oriented toward cell and tissue ultrastructure. Under the leadership of the renowned professors Burian, Kurz, Precechtel and Wolf, the laboratories established themselves in the world of medicine and contributed significantly to the international recognition of Czechoslovak medical research. The four laboratories, although intellectually strong and reasonably well-equipped, suffered from physical isolation and lack of collaboration. Therefore, it was considered proper to join the laboratories and to establish an Institute under the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. An otolaryngologist, Professor Vlastimil Kusak, was appointed as the first director (1975 - 1984). The research spectrum was extended by inviting to the Institute a group of immunologists (Dr. Jiøí Franìk, Dr. Karel Nouza), and by establishing a laboratory to investigate the health effects of mycotoxins in Eastern Bohemia (Olešnice, Eagle Mountains).

     In the seventies and eighties the profile of the Institute crystallized, particularly in the period when most of the laboratories were transferred to a building on Legerova street and subsequently when Professor Jiøí Elis was appointed director (1984 - 1990). Research areas broadened to include the electron microscopic investigation of the cell nucleus and nucleolus, particularly in blood cells; the morphological tracing of nucleic acids; the morphology and immunocytochemistry of the thyroid gland and pancreas; mechanisms of local immunity, cancer immunity and graft-versus-host reaction; biochemistry and histochemistry of the eye; corneal pathology and the testing of contact lenses; the morphology of the inner ear and its changes under the influence of noise; the electrophysiology of the central auditory system; the basics of genotoxicity and teratology; the mechanisms and epidemiology of craniofacial malformations; and the testing of mycotoxins. While several groups and individuals succeeded in reaching a high standard of scientific work, the Institute as a whole suffered from scattered topics, a lack of internal communication and many other obstacles characteristic of life in the seventies and eighties.

     In the beginning of the nineties, several parallel processes led to the harmonizing of the scientific orientation of the Institute as well as of its human capital. These processes comprised not only the change in the political situation in the country but also a significant rejuvenation of the Institute. In 1990, Professor Jelinek, Head of the Laboratory of Teratology, was appointed director of the Institute (1990-1994). The structure of the Institute was reorganized on the basis of a free competition of internal projects and further strengthened by its success rate in the competition for grants from the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences. The involvement of members of the Institute in both the teaching of medical students and in ecologically oriented research increased, particularly concerning the adverse effects of exogenous factors on the organism.

     Important for the formation of the improved profile of the Institute was the entrance of two new strong scientific groups in 1991 - the Laboratory of Cellular Neurophysiology from the Institute of Physiological Regulations, headed by Dr. Eva Syková, and the Laboratory of Genetic Ecotoxicology, headed by Dr. Radim Šrám (a joint laboratory with the Regional Hygiene Station of Central Bohemia). Clinically oriented groups ceased to exist in the Institute or were transferred to clinics. In 1993 the Institute moved to a new building in Prague - Krc, where other biomedical institutes of the Academy of Sciences are located. In 1994 Professor Josef Syka was appointed director (1994-2001). In the same year the Institute passed successfully through the evaluation process within the Academy of Sciences. Important changes in the organization of the Institute that have taken place since that time have focused its orientation and improved its scientific profile.

     In 2001 Professor Eva Syková, was appointed as director. In 2002 the Institute’s research program further increased through the establishment of four new groups, growing to its current size. The reason for this change was the affiliation of the former Institute of Pharmacology ASCR and the Department of Molecular Embryology from the Institute of Animal Physiology and Genetics ASCR. Moreover, two new groups headed by young researchers were founded: the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and the Department of Tissue Culture and Stem Cells. At present, the Institute of Experimental Medicine belongs to the biomedical group of research institutes of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic and is the only institute in the Czech Republic engaged in a comprehensive medical research program encompassing a number of diverse fields, based on the projects documented in this brochure.