BEATsep – prestigious European grant HORIZON EUROPE is coming to Brno

The Cellular and Molecular Immunoregulation (CMI) research team of the International Clinical Research Centre (ICRC) has been awarded a prestigious international HORIZON EUROPE grant. The project will focus on research into sepsis and septic shock, which affect up to 50 million people worldwide each year and account for almost 20% of global deaths. In addition, most surviving patients develop further complications that affect their quality of life. The total budget of the BEATsep project is €6.9 million.

This success is underlined by the fact that CMI-ICRC initiated the project, subsequently assembled a consortium of partners, and will act as coordinator of the project. This is only the third project in the Research and Innovation category focusing on population health to be coordinated from the Czech Republic. “The project is the result of our efforts over several years within the consortium, giving the chance to better understand and fundamentally change the recovery of paediatric and adult patients who have suffered septic shock. We would not have been able to develop this project without the intensive administrative support available to us at the ICRC,” added Dr. Jan Frič, head of the CMI.

The BEATsep project will use an interdisciplinary approach that will bring together research and clinical teams working on specific aspects of the development, treatment and prevention of the long-term consequences of sepsis and its impact on patients’ quality of life. Comprehensive clinical and research data generated during the project will be integrated using artificial intelligence algorithms into an easy-to-use predictive tool capable of identifying patients at highest risk of complications. Furthermore, the consortium plans to design a tertiary prevention strategy to help prevent the development of such outcomes.

To this end, a consortium has been formed to address this issue over the next five years. The consortium brings together renowned experts in immuno-metabolism, immunophenotyping, diagnostic sign research and several clinical teams caring for adult and paediatric sepsis patients. “It has taken nearly two years of intensive preparation and networking to assemble the consortium, which is already working on several joint projects.” says Dr. Marcela Hortová-Kohoutková from the CMI research group, who was instrumental in the project’s preparation.

In total, the BEATsep project coordinated by ICRC-FNUSA will involve 10 partners from 6 European countries including 1) CIML – Centre d’immunologie de Marseille-Luminy – (Aix-Marseille Université/CNRS/Inserm); 2) The Institute of Innate Immunity, at the Medical Faculty of the University of Bonn, Germany; 3) Faculty of Medicine at the Comenius University in Slovakia; 4) the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Traumatology, Vienna, Austria; 5) BioVariance GmbH, Germany; 6) Masaryk University, Brno, Czechia; 7) National Institute of Health, Prague, Czechia; 8) University of Galway and 9) APHM – Marseille Hospitals. BEATsep will bring together renowned experts in immunometabolism, epigenetics, immunophenotyping, diagnostic research and several clinical teams caring for paediatric and adult sepsis patients. “The BEATsep project is an example of an innovative and successful combination of translational and clinical research, the know-how of our own and international scientists, and collaboration between hospitals, universities and other scientific institutions of renown. I am proud that the coordinating team is from the ICRC, a joint department of St. Anne’s University Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University in Brno,” said Prof. Irena Rektorova, M.D., Head of the ICRC.

For more information and updates @BEATsepsis (Twitter, X), www.beatsepsis.eu, LinkedIN

The International Clinical Research Centre (ICRC) is a joint facility of St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno and the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University.