Projects of the EXCELES program

IOCB Prague has joined a series of unique research platforms in the areas of virology and bacteriology, oncology and metabolic diseases, and cardiovascular diseases.

The goal of the EXCELES program is to increase the ability of research capacities to respond to current trends and needs in the domains of research, development, and innovation relating to the occurrence of serious diseases with the statistically highest mortality or with high direct (medical) and indirect (social and economic) costs. The program also addresses impacts and complications during these diseases caused by illnesses such as covid-19 as well as the social and economic impacts of the systemic health risks connected with the diseases.

Focusing on support for outstanding research in areas of healthcare with the greatest significance to the public interest, projects in the EXCELES program are funded with grants from the Czech Ministry of Education, Youth, and Sport. The EXCELES program is financed with European Union funds through the Recovery and Resilience Facility.

Project registration number: LX22NPO5103

The mission of the National Institute of Virology and Bacteriology (NIVB) is to produce discoveries in the area of infectious diseases that improve human health, develop safe and effective antiviral and antibacterial therapies, and prepare platforms for future discovery and development of drugs to fight viruses and bacteria with pandemic potential.

Despite decades of research, there are still no vaccines or therapies for many infectious diseases. The importance of new therapeutics and the pressing need for them can be clearly seen in the negative medical and economic impacts of these diseases. Development of new therapeutics requires a basic understanding of the mechanisms that allow pathogens to infect cells and cause illness, and many of them have yet to be thoroughly studied. Basic and clinical research on viruses and pathogenic bacteria is essential for a better understanding and development of therapeutic responses to the processes by which pathogens cause disease, how they evade the immune system, and how they resist treatment.

The NIVB thus pursues outstanding research in the following areas: (1) interactions between pathogens and hosts; (2) immunity against viruses and bacteria; and (3) treatment of viral and bacterial diseases. Thanks to work with pathogens that are relevant to contemporary clinical practice as well as with new viruses and bacteria, the institute’s research groups will be able to supply expertise and equipment for the study of new pathogens with the potential to one day spread among the human population. In this regard, the NIVB will become a national authority and knowledge partner to government agencies.

Principal investigator and expert project guarantor: RNDr. PhDr. Zdeněk Hostomský, CSc.
Project execution: 2022–2025
Beneficiary: IOCB Prague

Project registration number: LX22NPO5102

Systemic social risks such as those posed by pandemics give rise to a need for new types of defense mechanisms and effective public policies. Moreover, healthcare and systemic crises have social impacts, the solutions to which, like acute crisis defenses, require systematic social-scientific research. The project will create a national authority in nine interconnected scientific domains to provide public policy support through basic and applied research.

Expert project guarantor for IOCB Prague: RNDr. Michal Tichý, Ph.D.
Project execution: 2022–2025
Beneficiary: Charles University, IOCB Prague as coinvestigator

Project registration number: LX22NPO5104

The primary goal of the CarDia project is the establishment and startup of an institute within the newly formed national research platform integrating outstanding researchers and advanced research infrastructures for biomedical research in cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and obesity. The goal is to (1) provide highly targeted and safer therapeutic methods, (2) to integrate CarDia into the European research space, and (3) to profile the institute’s strategic role in ridding the Czech population of diseases with the greatest social and economic impacts and thereby contribute to building resistance in the Czech Republic.

Expert project guarantor for IOCB Prague: RNDr. Lenka Maletínská, CSc.
Project execution: 2022–2025
Beneficiary: Institute for Clinical and Experimental Medicine, IOCB Prague as coinvestigator