Jan T. Vilček M.D., Ph.D. (born June 17, 1933) is a biomedical scientist, educator, inventor and philanthropist. He is currently a professor in the Department of Microbiology at the New York University School of Medicine and President of The Vilcek Foundation.
Vilček, a native of Bratislava, Slovakia, (formerly Czechoslovakia) received his M.D. degree from Comenius University Medical School, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia in 1957; and his Ph.D. in Virology from the Institute of Virology, Czechoslovak Academy of Science, Bratislava, Czechoslovakia in 1962. In 1964, Jan Vilček, with his wife Marica, defected from Communist Czechoslovakia during a three-day visit to Vienna. In 1965 the Vilčeks immigrated to the United States, and have since lived in New York City.
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In 1965, Vilček joined the faculty of NYU School of Medicine as an Assistant Professor of Microbiology, and has been a member of the NYU School of Medicine faculty for over 45 years. Vilček devoted his scientific career to studies of soluble mediators (cytokines) that regulate the immune system, including interferon and tumor necrosis factor (TNF). Over the span of his career, he has published over 350 papers in scientific journals. Vilček is an Institute for Scientific Information highly cited researcher in the Immunology category. He is also listed as an inventor on over 40 US patents.
In 1989 Vilček and NYU colleague, Junming Le, created a monoclonal antibody against TNF alpha, a powerful promoter of inflammation. TNF-alpha is involved in the pathogenesis of numerous autoimmune diseases. Collaborating with the biotechnology company Centocor (later acquired by Johnson & Johnson), Vilček and Le helped to develop the biologic drug initially termed cA2, which is now known commercially as infliximab, or Remicade. Remicade is a potent anti-inflammatory agent used in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, ankylosing spondylitis, psoriatic arthritis, psoriasis and other inflammatory diseases.
The success of Remicade encouraged the development and regulatory approval of several other anti-TNF agents (TNF inhibitor), including adalimumab-Humira, etanercept-Enbrel and golimumab-Simponi, all of which are being used to treat numerous immune mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs).
With the royalties from the sales of Remicade, Vilček and his wife Marica established the Vilcek Foundation in 2000, devoted to increasing public awareness of the contribution of immigrants to professional, academic and artistic life in the United States. The Foundation fulfills its mission through sponsoring cultural programs, awarding the annual Vilček Prizes, and hosting immigrant artists in its gallery space in New York City.
In 2005, Vilček made a donation to NYU valued at over 100 million dollars, for use towards basic research by the faculty and students.[1]