Vilček devoted his scientific career to studies of soluble mediators that regulate the immune system (cytokines), including interferon and tumor necrosis factor (TNF).

She moved with her family to Bratislava where she finished medical school, married Jan's father, Julius Vilček, and became an ophthalmologist.

From mid-1944 through the end of the war in 1945, Vilček and his mother were hidden by a Slovak family in a remote village, while his father joined an uprising against the Nazis.

Upon completing medical school in 1957, Vilček joined the Institute of Virology, Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences in Bratislava as a research scientist.

[5] Upon emigrating to the United States in 1965, Vilček joined the faculty of NYU School of Medicine as an assistant professor of microbiology.

He helped to develop methods for the production of human fibroblast (beta) interferon that enabled its clinical utilization and molecular characterization.

In 1989 Vilček and NYU colleague, Junming Le, created a monoclonal antibody against TNF-alpha, a powerful promoter of inflammation.

[13] The success of Remicade spurred the development and regulatory approval of several other anti-TNF agents (TNF inhibitor), including adalimumab-Humira, etanercept-Enbrel, golimumab-Simponi, and certolizumab pegol-Cimzia, all of which are being used to treat numerous inflammatory autoimmune diseases.

[14] 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 by awarding annual Vilcek Prizes in biomedical science and the arts, sponsoring cultural programs, and hosting immigrant artists in its gallery space in New York City.