Each of the participating institutions continues to collaborate on addressing specialized tasks and developing activities that build on the project’s results and contribute to more effective management of the “epidemic” of lifestyle-related diseases, even during the sustainability phase of the CarDia National Institute project.
We offer expert consultations in experimental, preclinical, translational, and clinical research on diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular diseases to public authorities, the media, and those interested in collaboration.
Please direct any questions to the project coordinator (Dana Hrušková, dana.hruskova@ikem.cz, +420 730 851 983), who will forward them to the researchers.
Cardiovascular disease (CVD), heart failure, type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and obesity are the most common causes of morbidity and mortality in developed countries worldwide. The prevalence of cardiovascular disease and related mortality is higher in the Czech Republic than in most developed EU countries. Moreover, the prevalence of obesity and T2DM, as important risk factors for cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, is increasing faster than in most EU countries. Patients with T2DM have a 2 to 3 times higher risk of cardiovascular complications, which are the most common cause of their premature death. The cost of treating these complex multifactorial civilisation diseases and their complications places an extreme financial burden on the entire healthcare system. The importance of obesity, T2DM, CVD or heart failure was fully demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the presence of these diseases was a major risk factor for severe viral infection with increased complication rates and higher mortality. New research and clinical strategies are therefore needed to prevent or effectively treat CVD, heart failure, obesity and T2DM in order to reduce the chronic complications of these diseases and the long-term risks associated with global pandemics such as COVID-19 infection.
The combined efforts of the excellent and complementary participants of the CarDia project will create a comprehensive national research platform (institute) encompassing experimental, preclinical, translational and clinical research activities in the prevention and treatment of CVD, its most common risk factors such as obesity and diabetes, and related chronic complications. This will ultimately help to prevent and treat these diseases more effectively by translating the knowledge gained from experimental research into new treatments and interventions. This will be done in an approach that optimises the situation in the Czech population.
The main milestones of the project are: (1) the concentration of the capacity and the launch of the project and its scientific agenda in 2022; (2) the full implementation of the agenda, based on 100 FTE scientists and technical staff involved, and the first scientific results obtained, in 2023; (3) the obtaining of most of the results and the main development of the international collaboration, in 2024; and (4) the publication of the results and the evaluation of the project, in 2025.Immediate benefits: (1) innovation and consolidation of research infrastructure in cardiovascular disease, obesity and diabetes, and rectification of support for biomedical research in this area; (2) world-class scientific publications and patents; and (3) strengthening science education and work with talented students and juniors.
The project impacts: (1) the establishment of CarDio as a national research platform, the long-term strategy and scope of CarDio in the R&D&I system in the Czech Republic, and a significant involvement in the European Research Area (ERA); (2) the strengthening of research internationalisation and partnership links, including complementary international projects; and (3) ultimately the application of excellent research results and findings to fundamentally improve the prevention and treatment of serious diseases with economic impact on healthcare and society as a whole.
"The CarDia Institute is the largest scientific project IKEM has ever obtained and coordinated. Thanks to this project, there has been a major shift in preclinical, clinical, and translational research in the fields of diabetology, cardiology, and obesity research. A number of experimental studies are gradually moving toward clinical application. The Institute has created a framework for unprecedented, intensive scientific collaboration between teams from IKEM, the Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the Czech Academy of Sciences, the First and Third Faculties of Medicine at Charles University in Prague, and Masaryk University in Brno. Thanks to newly acquired investments, it has also been possible to launch entirely new translational research projects and significantly strengthen existing research teams."
"A portfolio of projects that focused primarily on the mechanisms underlying the development of atrial fibrillation and its treatment, as well as the impact of atrial fibrillation on human health. Grant funding facilitated collaboration between clinical departments at IKEM and laboratories at the Institute of Physiology of the Czech Academy of Sciences or the First Faculty of Medicine at Charles University in Prague. Analyses of the unique tissue samples obtained are still ongoing and will yield new insights into the substrate for atrial fibrillation. According to preliminary results, perfusion studies indicate an adverse impact of atrial fibrillation on brain and kidney function. A multicenter study is underway comparing left atrial appendage closure with anticoagulant therapy in patients with chronic kidney failure. We were unable to reproduce an animal model of heart failure with preserved left ventricular function to study the mechanism of ventricular arrhythmias. However, several studies have been published on the treatment of ventricular arrhythmias using pulsed electric fields or radiation therapy. The Brno-based research group focused on developing a cellular model of cardiomyopathy based on an organoid composed of cardiomyocytes differentiated from induced pluripotent stem cells. To date, the largest number of publications have come from hemodynamic studies of physiological stimulation and studies examining the relationship between the nature of activation during left ventricular stimulation and the hemodynamic efficiency of its function."
"The project has provided the Institute of Physiology with the largest grant funding in its seventy-year history and has enabled exceptional collaboration with clinical centers. A new laboratory focused on cardiovascular research was established, and state-of-the-art equipment was purchased, which we will continue to use in the future. Our extensive research has so far resulted in 160 publications. Thanks to the grant, the Institute was able to acquire a unique system for metabolic and lipidomic analyses of biological samples."
"We focused primarily on the development of new potential drugs for type 2 diabetes and obesity, as well as for neurodegenerative diseases, and on diagnostic and imaging methods. As part of the CarDia Institute, we also conducted preclinical in vitro and in vivo studies. We collaborated primarily with the Institute of Physiology and IKEM. We also established a new international partnership in the area of doctoral studies with McGill University in Canada, where our PhD student is currently pursuing her doctorate under dual supervision."
"The most significant results achieved over the past three years include the description of developmental mechanisms in the development of cardiac muscle in newborns, an extraordinary study that elucidated a completely new mechanism of Fabry disease, and international collaboration in the field of hereditary nephropathies, where we succeeded in defining three new genetic entities. From the patient’s perspective, it is significant that for patients with hereditary amyloidosis, we were able to design the first therapeutic study utilizing antisense nucleotide therapy specifically for these patients."
"The Cardiology Center of the Third Faculty of Medicine at Charles University has participated in the CarDia project through its four working groups. The outstanding results have been published in leading scientific journals and presented in the main sessions at the world’s most prestigious conferences. The results pertain primarily to the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias (Prof. Osmančík, Assoc. Prof. Čurila) and the treatment of cardiogenic shock (Prof. Moťovská). Prof. Widimský was invited by The New England Journal of Medicine to write an editorial on the topic of left atrial appendage closure (published in NEJM on April 2, 2026). Prof. Moťovská’s flagship article presenting the results of the cardiogenic shock study is currently in the advanced stages of the peer-review process at The Lancet; a decision on its acceptance will be made in the coming weeks. Overall, the CarDia project has significantly advanced the department’s research capabilities."
"Masaryk University’s participation in the National Institute for Research on Metabolic and Cardiovascular Diseases provided a significant boost to the further development of both research and clinical activities. Involvement in the institute enabled access to new technologies and methodological approaches, strengthened interdisciplinary collaboration across partner institutions, and opened the door to establishing new international partnerships. This resulted in the launch of a number of new research projects, including the FH_early project funded by the EU Horizon program, focused on the early diagnosis and personalized treatment of familial hypercholesterolemia. The CarDia project also enabled, for example, the implementation of a pilot program for population-based screening of elevated cholesterol levels in preschool-aged children, as well as the launch of a study examining the influence of the gut microbiome on the development of atherosclerosis."
"The issues addressed within the project spanned both basic and clinical research, as well as practical applications in the fields of diabetes, metabolism, and cardiovascular health. We made very valuable investments that enabled us to propose direct applications in clinical medicine, such as the creation of genetic scores to predict the risk of persistent diabetes in women with gestational diabetes. We expanded the potential for predicting the risk of birth complications in women with gestational diabetes. The project also allowed us to validate the use of smart technologies in diabetology (a combination of glucose sensors and smartwatches) to assess the influence of chronobiological parameters on metabolic compensation in pregnant women with diabetes."
dana.hruskova@ikem.cz
