Institute of Experimental Medicine, which is currently part of the Faculty of Medicine of Pavol Jozef Šafárik University in Košice (FM PJŠU) was constituted in 1984 as a scientific research institute of the Pavol Jozef Šafárik University under the name Institute of Experimental and Clinical Medicine. Three years later on the Institute became part of the FM PJŠU. The Institute integrated a number of scientific research laboratories including Scientific Laboratory of the Department of Surgery, Scientific Laboratory of the I. and II. Department of Internal Medicine, Scientific Laboratory of the Department of Pediatrics and also Laboratory of Experimental Morphology of the Department of Anatomy. There were four departments established at the Institute: Cardiovascular, Biochemical-metabolic, Immunogenetic and Morphologic.
Research activities of the Institute were represented by various research tasks and grant projects. They mainly focused on preventive cardiology, preventive immunology and diabetology (indicators of glycemic compensation in diabetes mellitus, antioxidant systems and oxidative damage in diabetes mellitus and other diseases).
During the period 1986 – 2006, the Institute yearly organised six scientific conferences, two of them with foreign participation. In 1992 the IX. Symposium on Atherosclerosis with international participation was held in Bardejov. After an extended hiatus, the Institute of Experimental Medicine co-organised IV. International Symposium on Atherosclerosis, which took place at FM PJŠU in September 2006.
The Institute has been considerably participating also in training of scientific personnel. In cooperation with clinical departments of the FM PJŠU, the Institute educated external PhD students by enabling them to learn methodologies for determination of various biochemical and immunological parameters. During the work at the Institute, several employees have obtained following academic and scientific ranks: DrSc. (Doctor of Sciences) – assoc. prof. Jozef Kollár, DM. CSc., associated professor – Milan Kuchta, DM. CSc., PhD. – E. Hijová, DVM., G. Mojžišová, DVM., D. Petrášová, RNDr., A. Šipulová, RNDr. and CSc. (Candidate of Sciences) – MVDr. M. Siroťáková.
Since 2006, the Institute has completely rebuilt the concept for the research activities. There are clearly defined several objectives: research focus, building of the infrastructure and research team, domestic and international cooperation and educational activities. The current main goal is to build a cutting-edge research centre focused on the prevention and therapy of chronic diseases, applying an interdisciplinary approach and hard teamwork. Additionally, there is an effort to apply for EU research projects within the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020.
Chronology of Institute’s Heads
1985 – 1998 assoc. prof. Jozef Kollár, DM. CSc.
1998 – 1999 Darina Petrášová, RNDr. PhD.
1999 – 2005 assoc. prof. Milan Kuchta, DM. CSc.
2005 – 2006 Darina Petrášová, RNDr. PhD.
od 1.8.2006 Alojz Bomba, DVM. DrSc.
