The new Head of ICRC is Professor Michal Masařík
In the selection process for the head of the International Clinical Research Center (ICRC), a joint workplace of St. Anne’s University Hospital and the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University, Prof. RNDr. Michal Masařík, Ph.D., emerged victorious. He assumed the position at the beginning of August.
The candidate was unanimously agreed upon by the management of St. Anne’s University Hospital in Brno and the management of the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University. Professor Masařík was ceremoniously appointed to the position in the presence of the Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University, Prof. MUDr. Martin Repko, Ph.D., the Director of FNUSA, Ing. Vlastimil Vajdák, and the management of ICRC.
“ICRC is very unique in the Czech Republic. Such a facility within a hospital, where top-notch basic research is integrated with applied research and researchers actively communicate with individual clinics, cannot be found elsewhere. ICRC can directly contribute to the improvement of diagnostic and therapeutic approaches. Patients are the ones who benefit from the research center,” says the newly appointed head about ICRC.
Michal Masařík was born in Brno. In 2001, he completed his master’s degree in Biochemistry at the Faculty of Science of Masaryk University, where he also earned his doctorate in 2005 in Molecular and Cellular Biology. He completed his habilitation in Pathological Physiology in 2019 at the Faculty of Medicine of Masaryk University in Brno.7
His professional life is oriented towards the scientific and academic spheres. He spent five years as a research fellow at the Institute of Biophysics of the Czech Academy of Sciences and returned to his alma mater, Masaryk University, in 2007. At the Faculty of Medicine, in the Department of Pathological Physiology, he first held the position of Assistant Professor, then Associate Professor, and in 2021, he was appointed Professor upon the recommendation of the Scientific Board of Palacký University in Olomouc.
As a scientist, Masařík focuses on tumor biology, specifically the tumor microenvironment, particularly the mechanisms underlying resistance to therapy, and new substances that prevent tumor cell migration. At the Faculty of Medicine, he leads his own research group, the Masarik Cancer Research Lab.
His projects encompass both basic and translational research, with results applied in clinical diagnostics and cancer treatment. He is the author or co-author of numerous original scientific articles in international journals. Masařík is also a university lecturer, co-author of online teaching texts and educational scripts. Since 2016, he has been a member of the European Association for Cancer Research.
Professor Masařík does not intend to completely abandon his own research upon taking up his new position. “My research group has been functioning for nearly fifteen years; there are several senior scientists I can rely on. It is already well-established at the Faculty of Medicine and regularly involved in teaching. I will continue to be the head of the research group, but I think I can delegate a large part of the daily agenda. Moreover, FNUSA and the University Campus are not that far apart,” he adds.
