The Lush Prize recognizes efforts to end or replace animal testing, especially in toxicology research. The Science Prize specifically honours projects that show promise in developing practical, animal-free methods capable of gaining regulatory acceptance.
About DockTox
DockTox was developed by ProtoQSAR members Rafael Gozalbes, Eva Serrano Candelas and Rita Ortega Vallbona within the ONTOX framework in collaboration with ONTOX partner WP3 (chemical domain) from Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche Mario Negri (IRFMN). This tool focuses on Molecular Initiating Events and chemical–protein interactions. This platform automates docking of small molecules to more than 20 pre-processed protein structures relevant to organ toxicity, reporting binding energy, interacting residues, and interaction maps. It also includes an interaction fraction metric that compares predicted interactions with known ligands, adding an extra layer of interpretability beyond binding energy alone.
The tool DockTox is described in the publication “DockTox: Targeting molecular initiating events in organ toxicity through molecular docking”. As one of the in silico tools, DockTox helps lay the groundwork for standardising molecular modelling workflows and supports the advancement of in silico methods for toxicology in tiered risk assessment strategies.
In 2026, only 13 institutions and teams from 8 countries worldwide have been shortlisted in this category. The winners will be announced at the Lush Prize Awards Ceremony in May 2026.
More information is available on the Lush Prize website
