Institute of Experimental Medicine CAS

The Minister of Health of the Czech Republic, Prof. MUDr. Vlastimil Válek, MBA, EBIR, today awarded scientists with significant awards for outstanding results in research, development and innovation in health care.

 

Among the winners is the research team led by Ing. Veronika Vymetálková, Ph.D. from the Department of Molecular Biology of Cancer of the IEM CAS.

 

The Minister's Prize for Medical Research and Development was awarded to five scientific teams from the Czech Republic for exceptional results based on special-purpose support provided by the Ministry of Health of the Czech Republic for research, development, and innovation projects. Another five research groups received an honorary mention. The Minister of Health decided on the winners of the awards based on the proposal of the Czech Health Research Council (AZV).

 

The project "Investigating acquired chemoresistance by profiling genes involved in DNA repair in colon cancer patients", was authored by a team from the Department of Molecular Biology of Cancer (led by MUDr. Pavel Vodička, CSc.), and comprised of Ing. Veronika Vymetálková, Ph.D., Mgr. Klára Červená and RNDr. Soňa Vodenková, Ph.D. The co-principal investigators of the project are MUDr. Miroslav Levý, Ph.D., MBA and doc. MUDr. Tomáš Büchler, Ph.D. from Thomayer University Hospital in Prague.

 

The research aimed to identify markers in free circulating DNA (cfDNA) and to circulate microRNA (miRNA) that may be related to resistance to commonly used chemotherapeutic drugs. Identifying these markers could allow the personalisation of treatment and increase its success rate. So far, no objective biomarker has been found to distinguish patients who benefit from chemotherapy from those who do not.

 

The award ceremony took place yesterday (7. 6. 2022) in the auditorium of Michnův Palace (Tyršův dům). We are currently preparing a photo report from the event.

 

We would like to congratulate all the winners and wish them many more professional and personal successes.

 

More information about the research you can find here.