2007 has been an enormously successful year for the Voiceless Eureka Prize. The standard of applications this year exceeded all expectations. Forming part of the Australian Museum's Eureka Prizes, the Voiceless Eureka prize (of $10,000) rewards research that has reduced, or has the potential to reduce, the use of animals or animal products in laboratory-based research, education and testing.

The winners of the 2007 Voiceless Eureka Prize were announced on Tuesday 21 August at the Australian Museum Eureka Prizes Award Dinner – otherwise known as the ‘Oscars’ of the science world. Voiceless congratulates our 2007 Eureka Prize winners, Associate Professor Maria Kavallaris and Dr Sela Pouha from the Children’s Cancer Institute Australia and Dr Nicole Verrills from the University of Newcastle for the development of new animal-free models of drug resistance within cancer cells in childhood leukaemia. This new research has uncovered what makes certain cancer cells unresponsive to treatment, without using any experiments involving animals or animal tissues.

Voiceless's Katy Wood with 2007 Voiceless Eureka Prize winners Dr Sela Pouha, Associate Professor Maria Kavallaris and Dr Nicole Verills. (Photograph courtesy of the Australian Museum)

The 2007 Australian Museum Eureka Prizes also saw further acknowledgement of the commitment made by Australian scientists towards reducing animal suffering. Members of the public demonstrated their support for this commitment by voting for Dr Hala Raghib as the winner of this year’s People’s Choice Award for her work developing a novel method of testing the safety of new heart medicines that doesn’t require the use of animals.

Commenting on the success of this year’s Eureka Prizes Brian Sherman AM, Co-Founder and Director of Voiceless said “I am delighted that this year Australia’s most prestigious science awards have seen an unprecedented celebration of the significant advances being made by scientists across the country towards eliminating the need for animals to be used in scientific research. There is no doubt that this is reflective of our society’s rapidly increasing recognition of the need to treat animals with respect and compassion.”

For more information on the Voiceless Eureka Prize please see the article in the Sydney Morning Herald and visit the Eureka website.

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