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 of Animals in Medical Experiments) in recognition of Professor Balls’s outstanding dedication to ATLA during his 37 years as Editor-in-Chief.

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. 

And the Winner Is…

This year, the award goes to a team of outstanding researchers from the Centre of Experimental Medicine of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (CEM SAV) in Bratislava, Slovakia: Peter Pôbiš, Júlia Kubalcová, Tatiana Milasová, and Helena Kandárová. 

Their groundbreaking paper, ‘Development 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’, was published in ATLA 52(5), 261–275. 

The paper also won Best Paper Award in the ‘Medical Devices and Combination Products Specialty Section’ at the 2024 Society of Toxicology (SOT) Annual Meeting.  

Why This Research Matters

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 ‘Good Laboratory Practice’ 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.  

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

Human-relevant: More accurately predicts how products will affect people. 

Reproducible: Provides consistent results. 

Globally aligned: Meets international standards. 

Meet the Team Behind the Breakthrough

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.  

Based at CEM SAV, SK-NETVAL is dedicated to advancing and validating New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) for safety testing and medical innovation. They actively contribute to developing international guidelines and standards, building Slovakia’s capacity for alternatives to animal testing. 

The team includes:

Tatiana Milasová: Scientific laboratory co-worker. 

Helena Kandárová: Director of the Institute of Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology at CEM and Head of the SK-NETVAL Laboratory. 

Peter Pôbiš: PhD researcher and early-career scientist specialising in NAMs. 

This significant research was supported by the Slovak Research and Development Agency (APVV) and the Scientific Grant Agency of the Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic (VEGA).  

Congratulations to the entire team for their outstanding contributions to replacing animal testing and advancing more ethical and effective scientific methods.