Vilček became interested in research in
microbiology and
immunology during his medical studies. Upon completing medical school in 1957, Vilček joined the Institute of Virology,
Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava as a research scientist. There, in 1959, he embarked on studies of
interferon, a
protein made in response to infection with
viruses and other
pathogens. At the time,
interferon was still a poorly defined
protein studied by only a handful of scientists across the world. In 1964, Vilček organized the first international conference on
interferon that was attended by many scientists active in the field at the time. Upon emigrating to the United States in 1965, Vilček joined the faculty of
NYU School of Medicine as an assistant professor of
microbiology. At NYU, Vilček continued research on
interferon. He helped to develop methods for the production of human fibroblast (beta)
interferon that enabled its clinical utilization and molecular characterization. He and his colleagues showed that human
leukocyte (alpha) and beta
interferon are antigenically distinct, laying the groundwork for the later demonstration that these
interferons are encoded by distinct genes that belong to the same gene family. He and his coworkers also contributed to the characterization of human immune (gamma)
interferon. In the 1980s Vilček became interested in the study of another
cytokine, termed
tumor necrosis factor (TNF). His work helped to elucidate novel biological actions of TNF, led to the discovery of novel genes and proteins, and helped to identify signaling pathways. Over the span of his career, Vilček published over 350 papers in scientific journals. Vilček is an
Institute for Scientific Information highly cited researcher in the
Immunology category. He is listed as an inventor on over 40 US
patents. ==Contributions to drug development==