A total of eight project proposals were submitted to this year's LF Accelerate Internal Grant Agency (InGA) call. The scheme is designed to support the application potential of research results and to further advance their use in clinical practice. The InGA Council selected the two best proposals from among the high-quality applications.
Supported Projects:
Jiří Kos (Department of Biochemistry): INHALE: Novel Inhaled Antibacterial Remedies for Multidrug-Resistant Pulmonary Diseases
The project focuses on the development of new inhaled antibiotics for the treatment of severe pulmonary infections that are resistant to commonly used drugs. These include, for example, tuberculosis, infections caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria, and dangerous bacterial infections caused by pathogens such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The principal investigator, who has more than 15 years of experience in antibacterial drug development, will prepare approximately 20–30 new chemical compounds using a modern and efficient method known as click chemistry. These new compounds are based on chemical scaffolds that have already been shown to exhibit antibacterial activity under laboratory conditions.
The chosen inhalation route of administration allows the drug to be delivered directly to the lungs, where it is needed most. This enables higher efficacy while reducing the risk of systemic side effects that are typical of conventional orally administered antibiotics.
In collaboration with the University of Vienna, selected compounds will be tested for safety, stability, and their ability to penetrate lung tissue using advanced cellular models of the human respiratory epithelium.
The project will advance these new drug candidates from an early research stage to a more advanced level of development, resulting in validated sterile solutions suitable for nebulization. In doing so, the project will pave the way for a new generation of more effective therapies with strong clinical and commercial potential.
Eliška Zgarbová (Michal Masařík Research Group, Department of Pathological Physiology): iFIBROCHIP: Development of a Modular Microfluidic Chamber for Advanced 3D Organoid Culture and Anti-Fibrotic Drug Testing
Intestinal fibrosis is a serious complication of Crohn’s disease, characterized by stiffening and narrowing of the intestinal tissue. This condition often results in surgical intervention and significantly reduces patients’ quality of life. Despite its severe impact, no effective therapy currently exists. One of the main reasons is the lack of laboratory models that faithfully reproduce the real conditions of the human intestine and allow this process to be studied in detail.
The iFIBROCHIP project aims to address this challenge by developing a new laboratory model known as a “gut-on-a-chip.” This is a specialized microdevice in which human intestinal cells derived from induced pluripotent stem cells will be co-cultured. These cells will be organized into a three-dimensional structure that mimics the real architecture and behavior of intestinal tissue under fibrotic conditions.
The model will be able to simulate cell-to-cell communication, fluid flow, and mechanical stress—key factors in both healthy and diseased intestinal tissue. This will make it possible to study intestinal fibrosis under controlled and reproducible laboratory conditions.
The iFIBROCHIP project will thus help to better understand the mechanisms underlying intestinal fibrosis and accelerate the development of new drugs that could slow down or halt the stiffening of intestinal tissue. Ultimately, it may contribute to improved treatment options for patients with inflammatory bowel diseases.
In this follow-up article from our series on ethical and security aspects of the academic environment, we focus on ethics and the protection of rights. These values form one of the fundamental pillars of academic culture. They promote fair treatment, open communication, and responsibility towards students and employees.
The Faculty of Medicine at Masaryk University and Brno University Hospital are establishing a joint biobank of biological samples. It will help advance biomedical research and accelerate the transfer of knowledge into clinical practice.
