Prof. Mathieu Vinken, ONTOX and ASPIS coordinator, has been granted the “Prize Dr. Monique Govaerts and Joseph Lepoix for the study of intoxications” for the research entitled “Next generation prediction of human safety of chemical compounds: liver toxicity as a case study”.
Prof. Mathieu Vinken received this prestigious award, only granted every 5 years, during an official ceremony organized by the Belgian Royal Academy for Medicine in Brussels on 28 September 2024. The awarded research has introduced a new approach to accurately predict the safety of several types of chemical compounds, including those found in biocides, food, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, for humans based on a combination of artificial intelligence and in vitro testing, and without the need of using laboratory animals. This innovative approach has been optimized for liver toxicity associated with the accumulation of bile acids, or so-called cholestasis, yet can be applied to any type of adversity caused by chemical compounds. This opens promising perspectives for future human-relevant and animal-free risk assessment of chemicals.
