30 March 2022

Dr. Helena Kandarova is the recipient of the Björn Ekwall Memorial Award for the year 2022

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Announcement for Björn Ekwall Memorial Foundation Award 2022

The Björn Ekwall Memorial Foundation (BEMF) was initiated to honour the memory of Dr. Björn Ekwall (1940-2000), to promote cell toxicology and to establish a prize, the Björn Ekwall Memorial Award. The prize is awarded to scientists who have significantly contributed to the field of cell toxicology, and whose work is contributing toward the replacement of animal experiments by alternative toxicity tests and approaches.

The Björn Ekwall Memorial Foundation board is happy to announce that the BEMF award 2022 will be presented to Dr. Helena Kandarova during the opening session of the ESTIV congress in Barcelona Spain in November 21, 2022. The Björn Ekwall Memorial Award ceremony will include a short introduction of BEMF followed by the awardee´s presentation.

Dr. Helena Kandárová is a European Registered Toxicologist having deep knowledge in regulatory toxicology and especially in in vitro methods and broad practical experience to apply in vitro science and in vitro toxicology at research institutes, academia and industry. She performed her Ph.D. thesis at Freie Universität in Berlin on use of reconstructed human tissue models in regulatory toxicology“. After finishing her Ph.D., she moved to in vitro science industry, MatTek Corporation. Dr. Kandárová´s recent position is acting as Senior Scientist in the Centre of Experimental Medicine at the Slovak Academy of Science, Bratislava, Slovakia and assistant professor in the Faculty of Chemical and Food Technology, Institute of Biochemistry and Microbiology, Bratislava, Slovakia.

Dr. Kandárová has been and is actively involved in many national and international projects related to development, validation and implementation of in vitro methods to promote a paradigm change from animal biology-based testing to in vitro- based testing in research and regulatory science. Her special focus is non-animal methods and approaches for topical toxicity testing. She has over 50 publications. Dr. Kandárová is an executive board member of several toxicology related organizations. To mention a few: she is president of the European Society for Toxicology in Vitro (2020-), a member of EPAA Mirror group (2020-) and the chair of the Slovak National Platform for 3Rs (2018-).

BEMF acknowledge very much Dr. Kandárová´s novel scientific work, dissemination and promotion of non-animal science to replace animal testing.

Björn Ekwall Memorial Foundation

Cecilia Clemedson
Karin Gabrielson Morton
Karl Ekwall
Tuula Heinonen
Stina Oredsson
Anders Peterson

The award will be presented to Dr. Kandarova at the BEMA ceremony at the ESTIV 2022 Congress followed by BEMA lecture of the awardee.

About the award

The Björn Ekwall Memorial Foundation (BEMF) was initiated by the Scandinavian Society for Cell Toxicology in 2001, to honour the memory of Dr Björn Ekwall (1940-2000) and to establish a prize, the Björn Ekwall Memorial Award. The prize is awarded to scientists who have significantly contributed to the field of cell toxicology, and whose work is contributing toward the replacement of animal experiments by alternative toxicity tests. Over the past 20 years, the Björn Ekwall Memorial Award has been presented annually. Björn Ekwall, an outstanding Swedish cell toxicologist, was one of the pioneers in the development and application of alternative methods to animal tests in toxicology. Read more here

The receipients of the BEM Award:

2022 Helena Kandarova (Slovakia)
2020/21 Sandra Coecke (Italy)
2019 Jan Van der Valk (The Netherlands)
2018 Anna Forsby (Sweden)
2017 Thomas Hartung (USA)
2016 Vera Rogiers (Belgium)
2015 Michael Balls (UK)
2014 Tuula Heinonen (Finalnd)
2013 Per Artursson (Sweden)
2012 Horst Spielmann (Germany)
2011 Päivi Myllynen (Finland)
2010 Richard Clothier (UK)
2009 Annalaura Stammati (Italy)
2008 Erik Walum (Sweden)
2007 Rodger Curren (USA)
2006 Cecilia Clemedson (Sweden)
2005 Hasso Seibert and Michael Gülden (Germany)
2004 Hanna Tähti (Finland)
2003 Per Kjellstrand (Sweden)
2002 Maria José Gómez-Lechón (Spain)