Who won this year's Minister of Health Awards for medical research and development?

On 12 December 2023, in the Baroque Refectory of the Dominican Monastery in Prague, in the presence of the Minister of Health, Prof. Vlastimil Válek, and the Chairman of the AZV, Prof. Ondřej Slabý, ten researchers of the best evaluated projects supported by our agency were awarded and completed in 2022.

"Czech medical research is at the top level, even in international comparison. It is a great honour for me to be able to personally present awards to the researchers of the selected projects and to thank them for their dedicated, demanding, responsible and high-quality work," said Minister of Health Vlastimil Válek.

Last year, 84 projects supported by AZV ČR were completed. The expert panels eventually selected the eighteen best-ranked projects for the Minister of Health's Health Research and Development Award in 2023. "It has to be said that all eighteen projects from different fields of medicine presented by their researchers at a conference organised by our agency in Prague in early October achieved excellent results - and many of them had a direct impact on healthcare. The members of the Board and the Scientific Council of the AZV ČR thus had the very difficult task of selecting the ten best projects in a secret vote, which they then recommended to the Minister of Health for awards," Ondřej Slabý noted.

He says that it is great how the entire field of biomedical research has undergone a massive development in the last ten years and how the quality of the evaluated projects is increasing year by year. He personally believes that this positive trend will continue and that AZV ČR will contribute to this success by fulfilling its main mission, which is to promote quality and innovative biomedical research and development.

"I would like to sincerely congratulate all the awarded principal and co-investigators and their research teams on their achievements. They deserve great thanks for helping to advance the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of various diseases, which undoubtedly increases our competitiveness and strengthens the position of the Czech Republic in the field of international research," added O. Slabý.

The Minister of Health Award for Medical Research and Development was awarded to:
* prof. MUDr. David Cibula, CSc.(Charles University, 1st Faculty of Medicine) for the project Prospective observational study on sentinel node biopsy in patients with early stage cervical cancer - Part 2

* prof. RNDr. Daniel Růžek, Ph.D. (Research Institute of Veterinary Medicine) for the project Genetic basis of clinical picture and severity of tick-borne encephalitis

* RNDr. Pavel Krejčí, Ph.D. (St. Anne's University Hospital in Brno) for the project Development of FGFR3 inhibitor for the treatment of skeletal dysplasia

* doc. Ing. Jan Rusz, Ph.D. (Charles University, 1st Faculty of Medicine) for the project Objective testing of types of speech disorders and their influence on pharmacotherapy in patients with newly diagnosed Parkinson's disease

* prof. MUDr. Pavel Kršek, Ph.D . (Charles University, 2nd Faculty of Medicine) for the project Stratification of patients with focal cortical dysplasia to optimize epilepsy surgery

Honorary recognition of the Minister of Health for medical research and development received:
* doc. RNDr. Ivo Rudolf, Ph.D. (Institute of Vertebrate Biology, CAS ČR) for the project Preparedness for the introduction of exotic mosquito-borne viral diseases - One Health approach

* prof. Ing. Stanislav Kmoch, CSc. (Charles University, 1st Faculty of Medicine) for the project Determination of causes of rare genetic diseases in the pediatric population using new methods of genome analysis

* doc. MUDr. Andrea Burgetová, Ph.D. (Charles University, 1st Faculty of Medicine) for the project Quantitative multiparametric MRI in longitudinal follow-up of patients with multiple sclerosis: correlation with clinical status and biochemical markers

* prof. MUDr. Jan Lebl, CSc. (Charles University, 2nd Faculty of Medicine) for the project Study of etiopathogenesis and optimization of treatment in children with intrauterine growth restriction and postnatal persistent growth failure

* doc. MUDr. Štěpánka Průhová, Ph.D. (Charles University, 2nd Faculty of Medicine) for the project Genes affecting pancreatic beta cell function and their significance in the pathogenesis and treatment of monogenic forms of diabetes