Jan van der Valk receives Björn Ekwall Award

Dr. Jan van der Valk, director of the 3Rs-Centre ULS, has been selected as the recipient of the Björn Ekwall Memorial Award for the year 2019. The annual award recognizes scientists who have substantially contributed to the field of cell toxicology, e.g. by developing new in vitro tests, or via mechanistic or validation studies.
Dr van der Valk was recognized for his work to make scientists aware of the issues regarding the use of fetal calf serum (FCS), which is harvested from bovine foetuses taken from pregnant cows during slaughter. In the past 20 years, Dr van der Valk has organized workshops, given lectures and published several papers on this topic, including recently in ALTEX (doi:10.14573/altex.1705101). The 3Rs-Centre Utrecht Life Sciences and Animal Free Research UK launched the FCS-free Database in 2017, where researchers can find FCS-free media for specific cell-types.