Prize goes to ACuteTox collaborator
Dr. Rodger Dean Curren, collaborator within the ACuteTox project, receives the Björn Ekwall Memorial Award 2007, for his outstanding research within the field of alternative (non-animal) toxicology.
Dr. Curren devoted his scientific research to development and implementation of the alternative (non-animal) testing methods for assessment of toxic effects of chemicals, such as industrial chemicals, cosmetics and drugs. Instead of sometimes painful, and often unnecessary tests on laboratory animals, he developed the tests where animal or human cultured cells served as experimental models. In particular, he made important contributions in the development and implementation of non-animal ocular and dermal irritation tests. During nearly three decades, Dr. Curren also participated in the validation of alternative tests developed by other scientists, to identify high quality and the capability to replace certain animal tests.
Dr. Curren is the President of the Institute for In Vitro Sciences, Inc, Gaithersburg, Maryland, U.S.A., which is an internationally recognized non-profit Institute promoting the development of alternative methods in toxicity testing
Dr. Curren was an active collaborator of Dr. Björn Ekwall (1940-2000), a Swedish scientist in the field of cell toxicology and the founder of the Scandinavian Society for Cell Toxicology (SSCT). Dr. Ekwall was during many years the vice president of the Swedish Fund for Research without Animal Experiments. Dr. Ekwall was the initiator and supervisor of the Multicentre Evaluation of In Vitro Cytotoxicity (MEIC) study. It was an international study carried out over 10 years long international study: scientists from 29 laboratories around the world investigated 50 reference chemicals in several non-animal tests (altogether 68 tests). This study was very successful; it was demonstrated that cultured cells, especially human cells, could predict human acute toxicity much better than animal tests.
The Björn Ekwall Memorial Foundation (BEMF) was founded 2001 by the SSCT, to honor the memory of Björn Ekwall and to recognize achievements of outstanding scientists who have developed or used non-animal models in toxicological investigations. The foundation awards an annual prize of 20,000 SEK (i.e. approximately 2,000 EUR) to an international researcher who has significantly contributed to the field of cell toxicology.
The Björn Ekwall Memorial Award will be handed out at the 25th conference organized by the Scandinavian Society for Cell Toxicology, in Salzau, Germany, September 19-22, 2007.
The detailed information about the SSCT and BEMF, as well as about previous award winners can be found on www.ssct.net.