IOCB Prague

Václav Čeřovský Group

Antimicrobial Peptides
Targeted Research Group
BIO cluster

About our group

Václav Čeřovský Group was terminated as of 31 December 2019. The content of this page is no longer updated and serves for archive purposes only.


We examine the efficacy of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) invented in our laboratory for treating bone infection and preventing microbial biofilm formation on orthopaedic implants due to causative microorganisms of osteomyelitis. These microorganisms such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) can often develop antibiotic resistance that causes serious complications in orthopaedic surgery. The significant advantage of AMPs resides in their mechanism of action, which is different from that of conventional antibiotics and is assumed not to develop microbial resistance against antibiotics. We have identified several new AMPs which show significant antibacterial and antifungal activities, accompanied by varying levels of toxicity to eukaryotic cells. We work with their chemically synthesized analogs which possess high efficacy against resistant pathogens including MRSA, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and some species of Candida, while their toxicity is low. In the collaboration with colleagues from Motol University Hospital in Prague we are testing these analogs on samples of human bones obtained from a bone collection of hospital and also on laboratory animals.

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Group

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