BIOCEV Centre of Biotechnology and Biomedicine Launches Its Operations

The main goal of the BIOCEV project is to provide renowned researchers with adequate infrastructure for innovative research, to stimulate conditions for top scientific work in the Czech Republic and to support both national and European development of biomedicine and, subsequently, biotechnological industry. This is confirmed by the Minister of Education, Professor Petr Fiala: “The Czech Republic supports the center of excellence projects such as BIOCEV where we expect to see European or world class results and which will offer positions for hundreds of scientists who would, otherwise, leave our country. Experience from other countries shows that the support for top science pays over the long term as the results that can be used in medical or industrial practice provide a palpable impulse to the country’s economy and make it possible for the country to succeed in international competition.”

Professor Jiří Drahoš, Chairman Czech Academy of Sciences, commented: “As a joint project of the Czech Academy of Sciences and Charles University, BIOCEV belongs among the key projects financed by the Operational Program Research and Development for Innovation. The two partner institutions are, without any doubt, the most important players in research and development in the Czech Republic and as such they are the guarantee of successful construction and subsequent operation of the center in the sense of all three pillars of the project, i.e. top research, education of students and efficient transfer of research findings into practice.”

“Charles University is the key partner of the project, both from the research perspective and as the guarantor of the study programs to be implemented in BIOCEV,” says the rector of Charles University, professor Václav Hampl, adding: “Main focus will be laid on postgraduate study programs that are at the very top of the educational system since they serve to train professionals who are able to do independent and creative scientific work. Besides postgraduate programs, BIOCEV will participate on teaching undergraduates as well.” Besides the study programs that have already received accreditation, the university wants to expand in programs focused on experimental biotechnologies and biomedicine. As far as the scientific research is concerned, the Charles University teams will participate on all BIOCEV’s research programs, including Functional Genomics, but mostly they will be represented in the Cell Biology and Virology programs through the Biological Faculty, Charles University, to which they will bring their unique experimental models, and in the program Development of Treatment and Diagnostic Processes through the 1st Faculty of Medicine. These research programs will start in mid-2013.

The project is about to begin the second round of the tender to choose the construction provider. The start of the construction in Vestec is scheduled for May next year and should finish in late 2014. “A number of unexpected obstacles in the approval process have delayed the project. As it is possible to launch the joint research programs at the current workplaces in Prague and as the new machines will be bought parallel to the construction of the center we expect that there will be enough time to meet all the binding indicators of the project by the end of 2015,” says professor Václav Hořejší, Director, Institute of Molecular Genetics, Czech Academy of Sciences, and Chairman BIOCEV Board, on behalf of the EU fund grant beneficiary.

Although the center in Vestec is not built yet, the Institute of Molecular Genetics managed, last year, to establish an international research team under the leadership of associate professor Radislav Sedláček and to launch the first research program of BIOCEV called “Functional Genomics”. Functional genomics is a field of study that tries, on the basis of genome sequence knowledge, to define the function of individual genes. To study in detail the functional aspects of the genome, the scientists develop and use mouse and rat mutant models. “The primary goal of our program is to find concrete functions of genes within the whole organism. A detailed knowledge of the functions of individual genes is essential to understand many illnesses and to develop new cures. This field of study develops dynamically and many leading scientific institutions and pharmaceutical companies invest huge efforts and funds into it. In the next decade, most of the mammal genes should be primarily described and prepared for detailed characterization,” says Radislav Sedláček.

In their research, the scientists focus primarily on determining the role of selected genes in serious illnesses such as reproductive disorders, cardiovascular diseases, metabolic diseases, including liver disorders, inflammatory bowel disease and colorectal cancer. The last two illnesses are very frequent in our population and the Czech Republic is, over the long-term, one of the countries with the highest incidence of colorectal cancer.

Together with the research program, Radislav Sedláček has developed the national  research infrastructure: the Czech Centre of Phenogenomics (the so-called mouse clinic) which, as a part of the BIOCEV center, includes a number of service laboratories. This specialized center will serve the BIOCEV proprietary research teams as well as providing know-how and research services to foreign scientific organizations and the private sector. The transgenic laboratory, producing specialized genetically modified mouse models, is one of the center modules that is already fully functional. They produce mouse models for biomedical research in the Czech and international scientific communities. Through the membership in the consortium INFRAFRONTIER, The Czech Centre of Phenogenomics, with its program and capacity, belongs among the globally renowned research institutions that participate in the international program “Encyclopedia of Mammal Gene Functions”. This is a joint program focused on the primary description of all mammalian genes.

The unique research opportunities in the Functional Genomics program of the Czech Centre of Phenogenomics has attracted researchers from all over the world. Radislav Sedláček’s scientific team has been joined by researchers from Australia, Canada, Germany, Poland and Turkey, as well as successful Czech scientists who have returned to the Czech Republic after long-term stays at prestigious institutions globally, including at Harvard University and the Max F. Perutz Laboratories in Vienna.