FRAME Trustee Dr Richard Clothier receives international award

In recognition of his outstanding contributions in the field of in vitro toxicology, and in particular with respect to the development, implementation and validation of alternative toxicity test methods, and for his substantial contribution to the FRAME Research Programme, Dr Richard Clothier is the recipient of the Björn Ekwall Memorial Award 2010.

Richard was a co-founder (in 1983) of the FRAME Alternatives Laboratory (FAL) at the University of Nottingham Medical School, and was the director of the FAL from 1997 to 2005. He was promoted to Senior Lecturer at the University of Nottingham in 1985, to Reader in Cellular Toxicology in 1993, and became Associate Professor in 2005. Richard has been a FRAME Trustee since 1983.

He has played a substantial role in the field of in vitro toxicology, by contributing to the development and application of alternative assays for replacing animal toxicity testing, e.g. the Neutral Red Uptake (NRU) and Neutral Red Release (NRR) tests for basal cytotoxicity, the Fluorescent Leakage assay, the Alamar Blue (Resazurin) metabolism test for toxicity, and many others.

As an expert in national and international trials, he has contributed significantly to the further advancement of the acceptance of alternative assays for toxicity through his commitment to a number of studies, including a FRAME-led study in 1983–1986, the EC/HO and COLIPA international validation study on alternatives to the Draize eye irritation test, the EU/COLIPA international validation study on the in vitro 3T3 NRU test for phototoxicity, and the ECVAM/ICCVAM assessment of the NRU assay for measuring basal toxicity.

For many years, Richard collaborated with Björn Ekwall on the Multicenter Evaluation of In Vitro Cytotoxicity (MEIC) programme, aimed at the evaluation of the ability of in vitro basal cytotoxicity assays to predict human acute systemic toxicity. He is also one of the scientific leaders of the integrated EU-sponsored ACuteTox project, and is responsible for the generation of the basal cytotoxicity component of the in vitro database, contributing to the in vitro–in vivo evaluation of the data.

Archived May 17, 2010