Augusta Tool Replaces Animal Testing and Celebrates Success in L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science Competition in Czech Republic

Jana Musilová from the Department of Biomedical Engineering at FEEC BUT succeeded in the L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science competition in the Czech Republic. With her innovative project focused on reducing animal testing, she gained recognition in a competition that annually honors outstanding scientific work by women from around the world.

The young scientist entered this year's competition with the project "Pioneering in silico solutions to reduce animal testing." The center of Jana Musilová's research is the Augusta tool – a sophisticated Python package designed for creating computational models of biological systems that allows researchers to test their hypotheses and study biological processes without the need to perform experiments on living animals. This is achieved using gene regulatory networks and Boolean networks, which are digital copies of how living organisms function. "For better understanding, we can imagine the human body as a complex machine, where each cell receives various signals and decides accordingly what to do – whether to grow, divide, or produce certain substances. The Augusta tool can create a computational model of this decision-making and simulate how an organism would react to various stimuli or drugs," explains scientist Jana Musilová.

Jana Musilová, Department of Biomedical Engineering, FEEC BUT. | Author: Jana Musilová Archive

Jana Musilová, Institute of Biomedical Engineering, FEEC BUT. Thanks to the Augusta tool, it is therefore possible to test new therapeutic approaches or study diseases directly on a computer, without the need to use laboratory animals. The young scientist chose the name Augusta as a tribute to Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace, who became famous as a mathematician and the first programmer in history.

Jana Musilová made her tool available as an open-source project on the GitHub platform. This openness allows the scientific community worldwide to use and further develop the technology developed at BUT.

Prestigious Award with International Significance

The L'Oréal-UNESCO For Women in Science competition was founded in Paris in 1998 as an initiative to support women in scientific fields. The program recognizes the achievements of established female scientists and provides support to young female scientists at the beginning of their careers.

Since its inception, the program has honored more than 4,100 women from 110 countries. In the Czech Republic, the competition runs in cooperation with the Czech Academy of Sciences and can be participated in by young female scientists under 40 years of age working at Czech institutions with a PhD degree.

Contribution to Science and Society

Jana Musilová's success represents an important contribution to more humane methods of scientific research. Augusta is an example of how modern technology and computational modeling can significantly influence biological research.

 

Responsible person Ing. Zdeňka Koubová
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