Good science requires good funding. This year, the nationwide association Doctors Against Animal Experiments is awarding two Herbert Stiller sponsorship prizes, each worth 20,000 Euros, for innovative, human-relevant, animal-free research.
The winners have been announced: one award goes to MedUni Vienna, and the other is awarded to PharmaInformatic.
Both projects have significant scientific potential and aim to improve human medicine while eliminating several painful animal experiments.
Dr. Wolfgang Boomgaarden from PharmaInformatic, Germany, has developed computer-aided expert systems that utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to predict bioavailability—the concentration of a drug in the blood—based on its chemical structure. “With the Herbert Stiller Prize, we demonstrate how promising and advanced animal-free research is. Both humans and animals will benefit from the results of this scientific work in the long term,” said Filipova. “There are many compounds showing high oral bioavailability in animal experiments,” adds Dr. Boomgaarden. “However, these are not available on the market because drug uptake in humans and animals often differs dramatically, leading to failure in clinical trials.”