{"id":4602,"date":"2021-11-29T18:06:01","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T17:06:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.estiv.org\/?p=4602"},"modified":"2025-09-17T07:25:01","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T05:25:01","slug":"atla-2025-michael-balls-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.estiv.org\/atla-2025-michael-balls-award\/","title":{"rendered":"ATLA: 2025 Michael Balls Award"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Article source: https:\/\/replacinganimalresearch.org.uk\/celebrating-innovation-the-2025-michael-balls-award\/<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Michael Balls Award is presented by Replacing Animal Research <\/span><\/a>(former FRAME – Fund for the Replacement of Animals in Medical Experiments) in recognition of Professor Balls\u2019s outstanding dedication to\u00a0ATLA<\/em>\u00a0during his 37 years as Editor-in-Chief.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This annual award recognises the paper that the editorial board believe has the potential to make the most significant contribution to reducing, refining, or replacing animal research.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And the Winner Is\u2026<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

This year, the award goes to a team of outstanding researchers from the Centre of Experimental Medicine of the Slovak Academy of Sciences<\/a> (CEM SAV) in Bratislava, Slovakia: Peter P\u00f4bi\u0161, J\u00falia Kubalcov\u00e1, Tatiana Milasov\u00e1, and Helena Kand\u00e1rov\u00e1. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their groundbreaking paper, \u2018Development of Sensitive In Vitro Protocols for the Biocompatibility Testing of Medical Devices and Pharmaceuticals Intended for Contact with the Eyes: Acute Irritation and Phototoxicity Assessment\u2019, was published in ATLA 52(5), 261\u2013275. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The paper also won Best Paper Award in the \u2018Medical Devices and Combination Products Specialty Section\u2019 at the 2024 Society of Toxicology (SOT) Annual Meeting.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why This Research Matters<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

This introduces robust, lab-tested methods for checking the safety of medical devices and eye medications without using animals. These methods are GLP-compliant, meaning they follow strict \u2018Good Laboratory Practice\u2019 guidelines, ensuring the results are reliable enough for regulatory bodies worldwide. These new in vitro protocols assess how irritating a product might be, and if it causes harm when exposed to light.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This work is hugely significant for both companies and regulatory bodies, helping to accelerate the shift towards animal-free safety testing that is: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human-relevant:<\/em> More accurately predicts how products will affect people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Reproducible: <\/em>Provides consistent results. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Globally aligned:<\/em> Meets international standards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meet the Team Behind the Breakthrough<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The research was conducted by members of the SK-NETVAL team, a GLP-certified Slovak National Laboratory for the Validation of Alternative Methods, which is part of the larger EU-NETVAL network.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Based at CEM SAV, SK-NETVAL is dedicated to advancing and validating New Approach Methodologies (NAMs<\/a>) for safety testing and medical innovation. They actively contribute to developing international guidelines and standards, building Slovakia\u2019s capacity for alternatives to animal testing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The team includes:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Tatiana Milasov\u00e1:<\/em> Scientific laboratory co-worker. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Helena Kand\u00e1rov\u00e1:<\/em> Director of the Institute of Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology at CEM and Head of the SK-NETVAL Laboratory. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peter P\u00f4bi\u0161:<\/em> PhD researcher and early-career scientist specialising in NAMs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This significant research was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency<\/a> (APVV) and the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic (VEGA).  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Congratulations to the entire team for their outstanding contributions to replacing animal testing and advancing more ethical and effective scientific methods. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Article source: https:\/\/replacinganimalresearch.org.uk\/celebrating-innovation-the-2025-michael-balls-award\/ The Michael Balls Award is presented by Replacing Animal Research (former FRAME – Fund for the Replacement…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":4012,"ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":2,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","_searchwp_excluded":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[0],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_core_expirator_enabled":"","_core_expirator_date":"","_yoast_wpseo_redirect":"","rank_math_redirect":"","redirect":"","_core_expirator_redirect_url":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4602","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-affiliated-journals-tiv-atla"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.estiv.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4602","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.estiv.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.estiv.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.estiv.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.estiv.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4602\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.estiv.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/media\/4012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.estiv.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4602"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.estiv.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4602"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.estiv.org\/api\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4602"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}