OTS: ASPIS Open Symposium 2025: Science That Shapes the Future of EU Animal...

OTS: ASPIS Open Symposium 2025: Science That Shapes the Future of EU Animal-Free Chemical Safety Testing Athens, Greece 19 September (TASR/OTS) - The ASPIS cluster, a pioneering collaboration of three EU-funded research projects, concluded its annual ASPIS Open Symposium 2025, held on 17-18 September in Athens. This key event brought scientists, regulators, industry leaders and other stakeholders together to explore the latest advancements in assessing chemical safety without laboratory animals, with human health protection at the core. In its fifth edition, the Symposium reaffirmed Europe's role as a leader in developing New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) and Next-Generation Risk Assessment (NGRA) – helping map a pathway toward safer chemical testing that reduces and replaces animal use. “The ASPIS Open Symposium is where science and regulation meet. It highlights how far Europe has come in building ethical, efficient, and human-relevant safety assessments – and it reminds us of the collaborative effort needed to make animal-free testing the new standard," commented Mathieu Vinken, ASPIS cluster coordinator for 2024–2026 and coordinator of the ONTOX project. At the heart of ASPIS, which unites the three visionary EU projects ONTOX, PrecisionTox, and RISK-HUNT3R, lies the ASPIS Safety Profiling Algorithm (ASPA). This novel workflow integrates diverse NAMs and related data into a transparent, science-based framework for NGRA. The 2025 Symposium showcased refinements to ASPA, making it increasingly practical for regulatory use. Case studies on developmental neurotoxicity (DNT) provided strong examples of NAMs already being considered for regulatory decision-making. Discussions also focused on sustainability, ensuring that ASPIS results, tools, and knowledge will remain accessible beyond the projects’ official end in 2026. This year's Symposium also introduced scientific flash presentations, where nine researchers showcased their work in concise and engaging talks. In addition, nearly 20 scientists presented posters, with an expert jury recognising three Best Poster Award winners – one from each ASPIS project – for their outstanding contributions: - Eliska Kuchovska (ONTOX; IUF - Leibniz Research Institute for Environmental Medicine) – “Regulation of key neurodevelopmental processes by disease pathways and nuclear receptors in a human Neurosphere Assay” - Shaleen Glasgow (PrecisionTox; University of Birmingham) – “Comparative transcriptomics of Daphnia and Bio-medical models for the evolutionary conservation of a gene network for toxicant associated fatty liver disease” - Eike Cöllen (RISK-HUNT3R; University of Konstanz) – “Rapid identification of neurotoxicity alerts for multiple compound classes by high-throughput single cell Ca2+ assays” As part of their award, the winners received prizes including a complimentary pass to the 23rd European Society of Toxicology In Vitro (ESTIV) Congress, to be held from 29 June to 2 July 2026 in Maastricht, the Netherlands. With strong engagement from regulators, academia, and industry, the ASPIS Open Symposium 2025 confirmed the growing momentum behind NAMs. The discussions will feed directly into the EU’s ongoing REACH revision and the forthcoming European Commission roadmap for phasing out animal testing. The Symposium demonstrated that ASPIS is firmly on track to deliver a lasting impact: helping Europe achieve sustainable, innovative, and animal-free chemical safety testing for the future. The Centre of Experimental Medicine SAS (CEM SAS) leads the communication work package and is a deputy coordinator for non-scientific activities in the ONTOX project. In the ASPIS cluster and in the ONTOX project, CEM SAS oversees and develops communication strategies and supports and develops various activities to engage key stakeholders, including research, regulatory authorities, and industry. Additionally, CEM SAS is essential in making the vision of the ONTOX project and the ASPIS cluster accessible to the general public. About the ASPIS cluster: The ASPIS cluster comprises three Horizon 2020 projects, each playing a crucial role in advancing animal-free chemical safety assessment: - ONTOX develops a generic strategy to create innovative NAMs for predicting systemic repeated-dose toxicity effects. By integrating AI-driven computational systems with biological, toxicological, and kinetic data, ONTOX aims to enable human risk assessment without animal testing. - PrecisionTox uses a comparative toxicogenomics approach, leveraging evolutionary diversity to identify molecular toxicity pathways. PrecisionTox seeks to predict human health effects and understand susceptibility variations within populations through high-throughput testing across various model species and human cell lines. - RISK-HUNT3R focuses on developing and implementing integrated, human-centric risk assessment tools. By employing in vitro and in silico NAMs, RISK-HUNT3R aims to assess chemical exposure, toxicokinetics, and toxicodynamics, providing a sustainable framework for NGRA. Collectively, these projects represent a €60 million investment by the European Union to revolutionise chemical safety testing. The ASPIS cluster's collaborative efforts contribute directly to the EU's Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability, supporting the transition towards innovative, non-animal testing methodologies. Website: https://aspis-cluster.eu/ About the Centre of Experimental Medicine SAS (CEM SAS): The Centre of Experimental Medicine of the Slovak Academy of Sciences was established on 1 January 2018 by merging the Institute of Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology, the Institute of Normal and Pathological Physiology and the Institute of Heart Research into one Centre. CEM SAS is focused on the integrated research into the causes, mechanisms of development and possibilities of prevention, diagnosis and treatment of societally important diseases with an emphasis on diseases of the cardiovascular and nervous systems, metabolic disorders, mental disorders and mental health problems, as well as diseases originating in the prenatal and early postnatal developmental periods. The research in CEM SAS is carried out using in silico, in vitro, ex vivo, and in vivo models, with the aim of transferring the acquired knowledge to clinical practice. An important part is the evaluation of the effects of bioactive natural substances, their derivatives and original synthetic substances with pharmacotherapeutic potential, animal models of human diseases, as well as the study of side-effects of toxic and chemical agents and radiation. Website: https://cem.sav.sk/en/ LinkedIn: @Ústav experimentálnej farmakológie a toxikológie SAV Facebook: @Institute of Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology, CEM, Slovak Academy of Sciences Contact: Dr. Helena Kandarova, ERT ASPIS Co-chair for Communication and Dissemination; ONTOX deputy coordinator on dissemination, exploitation, communication and data management; Scientific Director of the Institute of Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology, CEM SAS helena.kandarova@savba.sk Tel.: +421 2 32295724 Photos can be downloaded here: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1-J9zt2Q1waho4wjhacnxv7gpM3Ygkq66 We would like to remind our customers that the materials marked OTS are provided as part of the Original Text Service and The News Agency of the Slovak Republic (TASR) cannot be held responsible for their content.