The EU’s largest platform for medical, biotech research to open in the Czech Republic

An official announcement by Mayo Clinic confirmed that the Brno centre is planning close cooperation. ICRC will be located at St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno. Some research-related projects will be conducted at Masaryk University’s Bohunice campus and Cardiovascular Animal Research Center located at the School of Veterinary Medicine and Pharmacology.

“The relationship will focus on collaborative studies conducted between Mayo Clinic and scientists in the Czech Republic,” said Virend Somers, M.D., Ph.D., a consultant cardiologist and Professor of Medicine, at Mayo Clinic. “At this time we already have an informal program that allows Czech physicians and engineers to train at our laboratory facilities. We look forward to broader and even more productive cooperation with our colleagues in Brno.”

Bohuslav Sobotka, the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance of the Czech Republic, said his country is honored by Mayo Clinic’s interest in the continued development of Brno’s biotech and life-sciences facilities. “We are extremely honored by the Mayo collaboration,” he said. “Mayo Clinic is a world-class facility.This partnership reflects the growing importance of Czech resources and intellectual capital to both the United States and the European Union.Czech scientists and researchers are working at the heart of life-science initiatives, applying innovative approaches and groundbreaking solutions that will accelerate technology development in critical fields of medicine.”

The project to develop ICRC Brno as a platform for leading medical- and biotech-oriented research is the result of this ongoing collaboration between Czech scientists and their counterparts at Mayo Clinic, whose diagnostic specialties and research focus draw thousands of patients from more than 150 countries each year.

The centre, whose costs reached nearly EUR 69 million, should significantly strengthen the current cooperation between Europe and the United States in the field of medical research.

Mayo Clinic, a non-profit university hospital (based in Rochester, Minnesota, with two additional sites in Florida and Arizona) was established in 1890. Currently employing 42,000 people, it is considered by many experts to be the world’s most prestigious medical facility for both the quality and scope of provided healthcare and for its leading position in the area of basic and clinical research, as well as pre- and post-graduation medical instruction. As a non-profit organization, Mayo Clinic annually reinvests approx. USD 350 million in research and approx. USD 150 million in health education programmes. The clinic has repeatedly been recognized as the Best Health Facility in the United States and is a winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine – for discovery of cortizol, a human hormone, thanks to which it was possible to develop drugs enabling, for example, control of severe allergic conditions, organ transplants, etc. More information about the clinic can be found atwww.mayoclinic.org

St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno has been collaborating with Mayo Clinic in the field of medical research since 2001. The results of joint research projects focused on new possibilities of diagnosing and treating cardiovascular disorders have been published in leading medical journals. This collaboration has also enabled the development of some leading technologies which are protected by three patent applications in the United States.

ICRC Brnowill be the world’s third international research centre in the field of natural sciences, after the International Space Station II and the European Organization for Nuclear Research in Switzerland, though it will be the first international centre in the field of medical research. The fourth will be the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, whose completion is planned for 2010.