Lush Prize attends ELRIG Drug Discovery 2026 conference
Lush Prize attended the ELRIG 2026 Drug Discovery conference at London ExCeL on 14 and 15 December.
The event – described as the largest of its kind in Europe – centres on advancing drug discovery through scientific innovation, translation, collaboration, and inclusion, by bringing together over 250 organisations from academia, biotech, pharma and start-ups, as well as early-career scientists, through a free event.
The exhibition and networking event also hosted over 120 talks over the two-day programme which aligned with one of 14 different event themes including ‘cell-based models for drug discovery’, ‘next generation drug discovery’, ‘innovation in action’ and ‘translating ideas into therapies -navigating the challenges’, plus many others.
Although the event had significant animal research content, there were a number of NAMs-based organisations present, and many talks or posters were focussed on NAMs-related topics. Just a few examples included advanced human in-vitro heart models for next generation cardiac research, AI and machine learning based approaches for chemical safety prediction, and new human-relevant models to study women’s health, such as ovarian cancer.
The conference also promoted other forthcoming UK and international events, including ‘the NAMS Horizon: Digital, in vitro, in silico’, to be held in May 2027 in Sweden.
We presented our poster entitled ‘The Lush Prize – funding innovative non-animal, new approach methods in drug discovery and life sciences research’, which showcases the successful work of Lush Prize winners since the prize was launched in 2012. The poster also highlighted the need to monitor progress – specifically from words into actions – on the UK Government ‘roadmap’ Replacing animals in science strategy, published almost a year ago, on 11 November 2025.
Our poster provided an introduction to the Lush Prize to those ELRIG 2026 delegates who have an interest in non-animal, new approach methods (NAMs) and the urgently recognised need to phase out animal research in favour of more human-relevant tools in biomedical research, and who may wish to nominate their work for a future award.
An article on our poster, as well as a copy to download are both available here.
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