chemistry

Tomáš Cihlář

Tomáš Cihlář is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Tomáš Cihlář rather than just read about it. In short: Tomáš Cihlář (born 1967) is a Czech biochemist known for his role in the development of remdesivir. A specialist in virology, Cihlář holds the positions of senior director, biology, and vice-president at American pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences.

Key takeaways

Tomáš Cihlář belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Tomáš Cihlář to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Tomáš Cihlář from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Tomáš Cihlář (born 1967) is a Czech biochemist known for his role in the development of remdesivir. A specialist in virology, Cihlář holds the positions of senior director, biology, and vice-president at American pharmaceutical company Gilead Sciences. As a student, Cihlář assisted fellow biochemist Antonín Holý in developing Viread, the primary drug used to fight HIV infection.

Early life and education Cihlář was born in 1967 in Plzeň, Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic). He graduated from the University of Chemistry and Technology, Prague, majoring in fermentation chemistry and bioengineering under the tutelage of Jan Páca and Vladimír Jirků. He completed his postgraduate studies at the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry of the ASCR under Ivan Rosenberg and Ivan Votruba. In 1994 he obtained the title of Candidate of Sciences and was engaged in the research of antiviral agents under the tutelage of Antonín Holý. That same year, he traveled to the United States for a postdoctoral fellowship with Gilead Sciences, where as researcher he worked on the development of antiviral nucleotide analogs including tenofovir disoproxil fumarate, which, marketed as Viread, has become a primary drug in the fight against HIV infection.

Career At Gilead, leading a team of hundreds of scientists working on new substances for the treatment of HIV, viral hepatitis B, respiratory infections and other viral diseases such as Ebola, MERS, and dengue fever, Cihlář is as of 2020 responsible for biological research on HIV and respiratory viruses. On a number of these projects, he continues to work closely with scientists from the Institute of Organic Chemistry and Biochemistry, particularly Zdeněk Havlas and Zdeněk Hostomský, and with the Radim Nencka Group, which develops compounds capable of stopping the replication of important human pathogens by blocking the remodeling of cell membranes induced by these viruses. Cihlář is engaged in ongoing research into HIV inhibitors that target the enzyme integrase and prevent the formation of viral capsids. Recently, these entail low molecular weight agonists of TLR7 (toll-like receptor 7). TLR7 receptors recognize single-stranded RNA in endosomes and play a role in innate antiviral immunity. Such substances should help eliminate the HIV reservoir in T-lymphocytes and completely cure HIV patients. In 2006, Cihlář received a William Prusoff Young Investigator Lecture Award from the International Society for Antiviral Research for his work on antiviral nucleotide analogs. He has patented dozens of novel inventions. In 2025 he was awarded the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize.

Remdesivir Also at Gilead, Cihlář is one of the company's lead researchers in the development of remdesivir, originally intended for treatment of Ebola. However, the Ebola epidemic ended before the new drug could be tested. Remdesivir briefly showed considerable promise in treating COVID-19 infection; in April 2020 the company provided 5,000 doses for experimental use in China and four hundred patients in 50 other countries. Remdesivir was used to treat the first confirmed case of coronavirus in the U.S. In early June 2020 it was reported that AstraZeneca, a British-Swedish multinational pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical company headquartered in Cambridge, England, was pursuing a merger with Gilead due to a shared interest in the potential of remdesivir. However, in September 2020, the WHO’s guidelines committee issued a statement that there was no evidence of benefit. In October 2020, recognizing his involvement in the development of remdesivir, Czech president Miloš Zeman awarded Cihlář the country's Silver Medal of Merit. In April 2021 Cihlář discussed the possibility of marketing remdesivir in pill form.

Notes

References

External links Literature by and about Tomáš Cihlář in the German National Library catalogue Czech Republic portal Biology portal Chemistry portal Biography portal

Anon., "A broad-spectrum antiviral drug would be ideal, says Tomáš Cihlář, who is developing remdesivir" (interview), ČT24, 15 May 2020. Langreth, R., "All Eyes on Gilead", Bloomberg Businessweek, 14 May 2020. Šálek, M., "Molekula naděje" (The Molecule of Hope), Reportér Magazín (in Czech), 5 April 2020.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Tomáš Cihlář

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Tomáš Cihlář claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Tomáš Cihlář before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Tomáš Cihlář ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Tomáš Cihlář

In research: Tomáš Cihlář appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Tomáš Cihlář in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Tomáš Cihlář is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1967 births, 20th-century biochemists, 21st-century Czech biologists, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Tomáš Cihlář outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Tomáš Cihlář in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Tomáš Cihlář means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Tomáš Cihlář out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Tomáš Cihlář in simple terms?

Why does Tomáš Cihlář matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Tomáš Cihlář?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Tomáš Cihlář.