Course Directors

Prof. Jech

Prof. Robert Jech, MD PhD

Biography:

A neurologist with 25 years of experience with movement disorders. He works at the Department of Neurology, 1st Medical Faculty at Charles University, Prague in the Czech Republic. He is consistently focused on patients with advanced Parkinson's disease, dystonic syndromes and spasticity. In 1998 he participated in introducing deep brain stimulation to the Czech Republic and in 2007 he started to treat his patients with jejunal administration of levodopa. He currently runs a center for interventional treatment of movement disorders which contains the largest number of implanted patients in the Czech Republic. His research is centered on the effects of deep brain stimulation, the physiological mechanisms of voluntary movement control and on the pathophysiological mechanisms of movement disorders (dystonia, myoclonus, tremor, Parkinsonism and spasticity) analyzed by functional imaging and single-cell recordings. Nine of his students successfully defended their PhD. Professor Jech has authored over 130 articles in scientific journals in addition to book chapters, conference abstracts and lectures.

Present appointment:

• 2016-      head of the Center for interventional treatment of movement disorders (i-TEMPO)

                 Neurology department, 1st Faculty of medicine, Charles University and General University, Prague

• 2002-      fMRI specialist, Na Homolce Hospital, Prague

Qualifications:

1st Medical Faculty, Charles University: 20.6.1993 - M.D.; 7.12.2000 - Ph.D.; 1.10.2007 - Doc. (Assoc. Prof.);

19.9.2014

Previous and other appointments:

• Neurology dept., 1st Faculty of medicine, Charles University and General University Hospital, Prague

1993-97 - neurology resident; 1998-07 - assistant professor; 2007-14 - associate professor; 1998 - head of the laboratory of clinical neurophysiology; 2014 - professor in neurology

Research experience:

Research interests: imaging and clinical neurophysiology in movement disorders and spasticity

Fellowships and international collaboration: VII-IX/1996, XI-XII/1997, VI/1998 McConnell Brain Imaging Center, Montreal Neurological Institute, McGill University, Montreal, Canada; III-VII/2002 University of Minnesota, Center for Magnetic Resonance Research, Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA; X/2010, XI-XI/2011, XI-XII/2012, IV/2014; Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany; 23.9.-2.10., I-III/2015 Hadassah Hebrew University, Jerusalem, Israel

Honors and Awards:

2012 Award of the Czech Society for Clinical Neurophysiology; 2013 Presidential award of the Czech Science Agency for the best grant; 2016 Ministry of health award for medical research and development

Lectures and educational activity: teaching of pregraduate students in medicine (neurology), actually, supervisor of 4 PhD students and 2 postdocs; coordinator of educational schools of Clinical Neurophysiology (2013-2017); director of the European MDS school for Diagnostics and treatment of spastic paresis (Prague, X/2017); head of the teaching center (Medtronic) of excellence for DBS; 

PhD students: 10 defended students with PhD

Research Funding 

(principal applicant or join applicant): Grant agency of Charles University – GAUK22 (2003), Internal grant agency of the Czech Ministry of health – IGA MZČR 7623-3 (2003-5), IGA MZČR 7823-3 (2004-6), IGA MZČR 1A8629-5 (2005-9), IGA MZČR NR8937-4 (2006-9), GAČR 309/09/1145 2009-2012, IGA MZČR NT12282-5/2011, the Czech Ministry of Education: grant LH13256 (VES13-KontaktII Czech-Israel), GAČR 16-13323S (2016-2018), Michael J Fox Foundation (Grant ID: MJFF11362), Charles University, grant SVV-NEST to support research of postgraduate students (2010-2019), 

Ongoing funding:

2020-22 European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJP RD) Pathophysiology of dystonia – EURDyscover: role of gene-environment interaction and common pathophysiological pathways (coordinator J. Volkmann)

2019-22 Grant agency of the Czech Ministry of Health: AZV NV19-04-00233 CLinical, IMAging and BIological predictors of effects associated with deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease (principal investigator – R. Jech)

134 PubMed listed publications, cumulative IF: 468; h-index: 30 (Scopus); Citations:  2685

5 selected publications:

1)       Jech R, Urgošík D, Tintěra J, Nebuželský A, Krásenský J, Liščák R, Roth J, Růžička E. Functional magnetic resonance imaging during deep brain stimulation: A pilot study in four patients with Parkinson's disease. Mov Disord 2001;16(4):1126-1132

2)       Jech R., Klempíř J., Vymazal J., Židovská J., Klempířová O., Růžička E., Roth J. Variation of selective gray and white matter atrophy in Huntington's disease. Mov Disord 2007; 22(12):1783-1789

3)       Mueller K, Jech R, Schroeter M L. Deep-brain stimulation for Parkinson´s disease. N Eng J MED 2013;368(5):482-483

4)       Sieger T, Serranová T, Růžička F, Vostatek P, Wild J, Šťastná D, Bonnet C, Novák D, Růžička E, Urgošík D, Jech R. Distinct populations of neurons respond to emotional valence and arousal in the human subthalamic nucleus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2015;112(10):3116-21

5)       Mueller, K., D. Urgosik, T. Ballarini, S. Holiga, H.E. Möller, F. Růžička, J. Roth, J. Vymazal, M.L. Schroeter, E. Růžička, and R. Jech, Differential effects of deep brain stimulation and levodopa on brain activity in Parkinson’s disease. Brain Communications, 2020. 2(1): p. fcaa005