Success in the AZV ČR competition

Ing. Denisa Lizoňová, Ph.D. of the Department of Chemical Engineering has succeeded in the public competition of the Czech Health Research Council (AZV ČR) for targeted support from the Ministry of Health for the years 2027–2030 (VES 2027/J). A total of 611 project proposals were accepted into the competition, 605 of them proceeded to expert evaluation, and only 104 were selected for funding — a figure that underlines how competitive the call was.

The project Advanced Sustained-Release Formulations of Anorexigenic Peptides: Innovative Drug Delivery Systems for Cardiometabolic Disease Management (NW27-08-00072) was supported within the Biomedical Technology panel and will run for four years from January 2027.

Cardiometabolic diseases are among the leading causes of morbidity and mortality, and their incidence is rising alongside the global epidemic of obesity and type 2 diabetes. Current peptide-based therapies are effective, but they require frequent injections, which limits patients’ willingness to stay on treatment. The aim of the project is to develop a formulation that provides a long-lasting therapeutic effect after a single administration, and thereby to contribute to better tolerability and effectiveness of long-term treatment of obesity and metabolic syndrome. The work covers the development and characterisation of the formulation, safety assessment in vitro, and validation of efficacy in preclinical models.

The project is carried out in collaboration with two institutes of the Czech Academy of Sciences — the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the CAS (Dr. Andrea Pačesová) and the Institute of Physiology of the CAS (Dr. Jaroslav Kuneš).