The Success of the FNUSA-ICRC Project Brings Hope to Patients; It Will Facilitate the Development of an Artificial Heart

13.04.2010

Development of an artificial heart is one of the ambitious goals of the International Clinical Research Center

St. Anne’s University Hospital Brno has succeeded with its unique research and the scientific FNUSA-ICRC (International Clinical Research Center) project in the competition for European Union financing. It now enters the negotiation phase.

The top-quality FNUSA-ICRC project, which has been in preparation for a long time and is unique on both the Czech and European scene, is a joint effort by leading specialists from St. Anne’s Hospital and Mayo Clinic in Rochester, USA. The project applied for financing from the Operational Program “Research and Development for Innovation” (OP VaVpI) as a “Center of Excellence”. As a large project, FNUSA-ICRC underwent a very detailed, extensive, and intransigent evaluation carried out by 77 specialists from 16 countries.

Petr Koška, Director of St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno, summarizes why the FNUSA-ICRC project is so exceptional: "The uniqueness of the project is based mainly on the interconnection between fundamental pre-clinical and clinical research and clinical care for patients. Due to the long-term cooperation with Mayo Clinic and thanks to the successful application for financing from OP VaVpI, we have the opportunity to apply the latest discoveries of the world’s leading scientific teams into everyday clinical care."

The head scientist of the project and the deputy director for ICRC, Tomáš Kára, says: "Top-quality medical research of the 21st century will require very wide multidisciplinary cooperation. The International Clinical Research Center will be a platform that will facilitate intensive multidisciplinary cooperation between specialists from the areas of medicine, biomedical engineering, biotechnologies, nanotechnologies, information and telecommunication technologies, veterinary medicine, pharmacology, and a range of other branches on the international level. A fundamentally new type of scientific cooperation will thus be created."

"The financial resources we will receive from the OP VaVpI will enable the planned realization of the FNUSA-ICRC project and will involve the Czech Republic in priority projects of medical research, such as the development of an artificial heart and new technologies for curing stroke and some types of tumors. This will have a positive influence on the development of both health care and a knowledge economy in the Czech Republic and the European Union. Young Czech researchers will have the opportunity to join international research teams. We are confident that this will enable us to educate a new generation of specialists and contribute in this way to the sustainable development of the Czech intelligentsia."

The negotiation phase is followed by a phase in which applications are submitted to the European Commission. The Commission will make the final decision on which of the large projects will be awarded grants. The final decision can be expected at the end of this year. Taking into consideration the needs of the patients, twelve research programs are proposed within the FNUSA-ICRC project: these are focused on research and development of new methods, technologies, pharmaceuticals, and methodologies for the prevention, diagnosis, and cure of the most serious diseases that currently pose a threat to the population: cardiovascular and neurological diseases. One of the programs is the Cardio 1 program, which focuses on cardiovascular and transplant surgery, heart failure, and organ transplants, as well as on the development of new methods for advanced intervention and cure.

Petr Němec, director of the Center for Cardiovascular and Transplant Surgery in Brno, is the scientific guarantor of the Cardio 1 program. He comments: "Research focused on the development of mechanical heart aids has a long tradition in Brno, and we are ready to continue in this tradition. Cooperation with such a world-renowned center as Mayo Clinic will help us achieve this."

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The history of St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno dates back to 1786.

The hospital provides basic, specialized, and super-specialized diagnostic, therapeutic, and nursing services, and issues pharmaceuticals from its hospital pharmacy.

St. Anne’s has 31 specialized units and 961 hospital beds. It employs more than 2,500 people. In 2009, 28,639 patients were hospitalized and 1,442,095 outpatients were treated.

St. Anne’s units are educational centers of the Masaryk University School of Medicine. These units participate in medical and non-medical healthcare courses at pre-graduate and post-graduate levels. They also carry out research and development activities and clinical studies of pharmaceuticals and medical devices. St. Anne’s cooperates with other university hospitals, healthcare centers, research centers, the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and other specialized institutions in the Czech Republic and abroad in the areas of medical care and research and development. Leading specialists from St. Anne’s and Mayo Clinic have prepared the unique scientific research project known as FNUSA-ICRC (St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno - International Clinical Research Center).

Contact for the media:

Šárka Urbánková,

press spokesperson – (+420) 543 182 003, (+420) 721 903 073

sarka.urbankova@fnusa.cz