The US Ambassador visited Brno scientists. He wants to expand collaboration in research
The United States Ambassador, Stephen B. King, together with three of his colleagues from the Embassy of the USA in Prague, visited the International Clinical Research Center at St Anne’s University Hospital in Brno (FNUSA-ICRC) yesterday. The aim of this meeting was to support the collaboration in medical research that is already in place and expand it further.
During his visit to the Brno research center, the Ambassador met with several heads of research teams and learnt more about their work. “The Ambassador had the opportunity to visit our unique sleep laboratory, where patients with sleep disorders are treated. He also visited the cardiac electrophysiology laboratory, which has a unique magnetic stereotactic navigation system made by the US company Stereotaxis. In addition, he learnt about a patented technology from the Biomedical Engineering team which can determine the electrical activation of heart chambers and measure their mutual delay with millisecond precision,” said the Head of FNUSA-ICRC, Gorazd B. Stokin.
“Considering that our Center’s current research is being conducted in close collaboration with local and national organizations and institutes, such as Charles University in Prague, Masaryk University in Brno and the Czech Academy of Sciences, this is a remarkable opportunity not just for Brno, but also for our country. The Ambassador’s visit is therefore significant for both our city and the entire region,” said Martin Pavlík, the Director of St Anne’s University Hospital in Brno, also referring to the fact that two weeks prior that, Ambassador King also took part in a meeting between Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and US President Donald Trump.
“During his visit to the USA, the Czech prime minister presented a new strategy for research and development introduced by the Czech government. There is no better example of this new strategy than what is in progress here, in the International Clinical Research Center, working with many US partners,” said US Ambassador Stephen King.
The Czech Republic and the USA have been working together in research, development and innovation for many years, and FNUSA-ICRC plays an important role in this field by working with their US partners. One example is the Mayo Clinic, which has jointly submitted, together with FNUSA-ICRC, two patent applications to the United States Patent and Trademark Office and has worked with FNUSA-ICRC on nearly 150 joint publications. Other examples include partnerships with the University of South Florida, which has worked with FNUSA-ICRC on more than 60 publications, and with Yale University, where the future Head of the FNUSA-ICRC research team is currently starting a two-year fellowship.
Brno’s International Center also works with US companies, such as GE Healthcare, whose vice-president for research visited FNUSA-ICRC at the end of February; Psychogenics, with which FNUSA-ICRC helps develop drugs for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases; and ResMed, with which the Center helps develop diagnostic devices for sleep apnea. Since 2011, FNUSA-ICRC has grown into an internationally competitive and highly productive research center of translational medicine and will surely play a leading role in this field in the near future.
