President’s Message - October 2025

A Message from José Manautou, October 2025

Dear Colleagues,

As we build momentum for ICTXVII in Beijing, I am pleased to share timely updates and a brief reflection as I conclude my term as IUTOX President. Yesterday, we announced that Dr. Jun Kanno of Japan is the IUTOX 2025 Merit Award recipient. His decades of scientific leadership, mentorship, and service to IUTOX exemplify the ideals of our Union, and the award will be presented during the ICTXVII Opening Ceremony on Wednesday, 15 October 2025.

Looking to ICTXVII, delegates can expect plenary and keynote lectures highlighting advances at the environment-health interface, a rich scientific program spanning mechanistic, regulatory, and translational toxicology, and continuing education offerings designed to strengthen practice and policy skills. IUTOX is supporting participation through travel awards (up to 40), and we will include the latest registration snapshot and countries represented as soon as we receive the figures from our hosts.

Early planning is underway to bring the Risk Assessment Summer School (RASS) to Kuala Lumpur in November 2026. IUTOX Director Chan Kok Meng and Education Committee Chair Heather Wallace are leading this effort. Save the date information, application timelines, faculty, and travel support details will be available at a later time. Further ahead, please mark your calendars for CTDC13 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina (May 18–21, 2027) an important venue for community building and capacity strengthening where toxicology can have immediate public health impact.

As I look back on these last three years, I am grateful for what we accomplished together. We re energized in-person education and training, most notably with RASS, while sustaining a webinar cadence that broadened access to practical risk assessment tools across continents. We strengthened our global convenings from CTDC12 in Santiago in 2024, through the build up to ICTXVII, keeping scientific rigor high while expanding participation from developing regions.

We invested in the next generation by expanding travel award opportunities and mentorship touchpoints so that more early career colleagues could present their work and grow their networks. We deepened partnerships with member societies, regulators, and industry so that our science remains aligned with public health priorities.

We also formalized agreements with two Elsevier journals to amplify IUTOX voices, and our community contributed influential perspectives to the Current Opinion in Toxicology opinions platform, ideas we generated at the Global Collaboration Coffee during SOT Meetings to spark cross-regional collaboration. I am also grateful to the societies and organizations that entrust IUTOX with the resources and funding to in his steady leadership and in the continuity of the course we have set. Together, with the incoming Executive Committee, whose composition will be announced at the General Assembly in Beijing, I am certain IUTOX will remain a driving force for toxicology around the world.