"The nanotechnology
industry is rapidly growing with promises of substantial benefits that will
have significant global, economic and scientific impacts, applicable to a whole
host of areas from engineering and electronics to environmental remediation and
medical healthcare. However, at present there is growing concern over the
safety of nanomaterials with respect to occupational, consumer and
environmental exposures. This timely symposium is aimed at bringing together
eminent scientists at the forefront of the nanotoxicology field to present
their current research findings and discuss the potential impact of
nanomaterials on human health and the environment. This event will therefore
present an ideal opportunity for toxicologists, nanotechnologists, industrial
members and governmental regulatory agencies to interact and discuss the latest
developments in this controversial field"- Meeting Chair - Dr. Shareen H. Doak, University of Wales Swansea, UK
This meeting has CPD accreditation
9:00 – 9:45 Registration
9:45 – 9:55 Introduction by the
Chair: Dr. Shareen H. Doak, University of Wales Swansea, UK
9:55 – 10:30 Health
implications of Nanoparticles
Professor
Wolfgang G. Kreyling,
Helmholtz
Zentrum München Research Center for Health & Environment; Institute of Inhalation Biology, Focus
Network Nanoparticles and Health, Germany
Quantitative dosimetry (QD) of
nanoparticles (NP) allows precise estimates of NP accumulation not only in the
primary organ of intake but also in secondary target organs. Hence, QD is
prerequisite for subsequent dose dependent toxicological investigations on
responses of target cells in exposed organs and underlying mechanisms. Accumulation in target cells is likely to
depend on complex formation of NP with proteins and biomolecules of body fluids
in which they happen to be suspended.
10:30 – 11:05 The
carbon nanotube hazard
Professor Ken Donaldson, Edinburgh University, Edinburgh.
The similarity of
multiwalled carbon nanotubes (CNT) to asbestos in terms of their fibre shape,
has been noted and failure to detect potential of CNT to cause mesothelioma,
the hallmark tumour of asbestos exposure, early-on would be devastating for the
nanotechnologies. The structure/activity paradigm that explains the
pathogenicity of asbestos and other fibres is established, defining the long
rigid needle–like shape of the fibres and their ability to persist in the
lungs, as requirements for pathogenicity. The fibre pathogenicity paradigm has
been shown to be applicable to asbestos, synthetic vitreous fibres and one
organic fibre. The essential feature of
the paradigm are that to be pathogenic:- 1) an appreciable number of thin
fibres longer than about 20m must enter the lungs; 2) the long fibres must be
biopersistent in the lungs and not dissolve/break into shorter fibres. Such
fibres over an extended time in the lungs cause inefficient or frustrated
macrophage phagocytosis leading to chronic inflammation and diminished
clearance of the long fibres leading to an accumulation of dose with ongoing
exposure in an inhalation situation; epithelial and mesothelial injury and
genotoxicity; secondary genotoxicity; fibrosis and cancer in the lungs, pleural
and peritoneal cavity. We hypothesised here that the most important
and unique response to asbestos is the mesothelial one and so we used a mouse
model of mesothelial exposure. We exposed the mouse peritoneal mesothelium to
two long rigid samples of CNT that looked like asbestos fibres and two CNT
samples that were tangled and therefore essentially ‘particles’, rather than
fibres. We also used a long fibre
asbestos preparation (LFA) and a short fibre preparation made from it by
milling (SFA ) and a nanoparticle carbon black (NPCB) sample as controls. The only samples which caused any evidence of
pathogenic effects, by causing inflammation and
granuloma formation in the diaphragm and multinucleate foreign body
giant cell reaction were those 3 samples that had long fibres – LFA, and the
two long CNT samples. The study demonstrates that not all MW-CNT are created
equal in terms of potential asbestos-like hazard to the mesothelium. Tangled
and short forms of CNT presented very low or no fibre hazard whereas long rigid
forms of CNT did. This study is hazard-based and there is a pressing need for
exposure data for those who work with MW-CNT in order to assess and manage
their risk and for further toxicology work using pulmonary exposure to
determine whether CNT reach the mesothelium and cause mesothelioma there . Acknowledgement. This research was funded by
the Colt Foundation
11:05- 11:15 Speakers photo
11:15 – 11:35 Mid-morning break
11:35
– 12:10 Talk title to be confirmed
Dr.
Qasim Chaudhry , Central Science
Laboratory, United Kingdom
12:10 – 12:40 Selected
Abstracts
12:40 – 13:00 Tour of the BioPark
14:00 – 14:35 Linking
the Toxicology and Ecotoxicology of Nanoparticles
Investigations
of the effects of a range of nanoparticles on mammalian cells and rodent models
clearly indicated that smaller particles have the potential to induce toxicity
via reactive oxygen species, oxidative stress and activation of the immune
system leading to inflammation. The potency of particle induced effects is
related to size, surface area and a wide range of other physicochemical
characteristics. How can this information be used to investigate the
ecotoxicology of nanoparticles, and what evidence is there that nanoparticles
behave similarly in different species?
14:35 – 15:10 Possible
Fate, Behaviour and Ecotoxicology of Nanoparticles in Natural Waters
Professor
Jamie Lead,
The University of Birmingham,UK
Manufactured
nanoparticles (NPs) will interact with natural components in aquatic systems
and this interaction will strongly influence the behaviour and impacts of these
NPs. The interaction of primary importance and where there is fundamental
uncertainty, is with natural colloidal and nanoparticulate material. These natural
nanoparticles which are produced by weathering, microbial processes and other
processes and areubiquitous in aquatic and terrestrial systems. This talk will
discuss these likely interactions and their effect on transport and on
biological systems
15:10 – 15:40 Afternoon Tea/Coffee and Last Poster Viewing
15:40 - 16:15 Toxic Effects
of Nanomaterials to Trout: Implications for Fish Toxicity Testing,
Characterisation of Test Media, & Regulation.
Dr
Richard Handy, Plymouth Unversity, UK
16:15 – 16:50 Biological response of fish
cell cultures and sticklebacks to cadmium and silver nanoparticles.
Dr Brett Lyons, CEFAS (Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science), Weymouth Laboratory.
Nanotechnology
is a rapidly developing field, attracting investment from industry and
governments. The range and variety of nanomaterials available is likely to
require a specific risk assessment for each new compound with associated fit
for purpose testing procedures. We are developing a tiered testing approach
using cadmium (4nm 1nm) and silver (13nm 7nm) nanoparticles, which comprises an initial
screen for cellular toxicity using cultured cells, followed by standardised
(OECD) whole organism ecotoxicology tests using the freshwater Crustacean Daphnia
magna. Finally the estuarine fish stickleback (Gasterosteus aculeatus)
will be used to assess a range of toxicological, behavioural and reproductive
endpoints.
18:00 Soiree at *The Best Western Homestead Court Hotel for
all the participants
About
the Chair
Dr
Shareen Doak obtained her PhD in 2003 investigating
the molecular mechanisms that drive neoplastic progression of oesophageal
adenocarcinoma, and since has been researching the mechanistic basis of
DNA damage induction and persistence, as well as their consequences upon human
health. Shareen is currently appointed as a
Research Councils UK (RCUK) Academic Fellow in Nanomedicine at Swansea
University, where her specific research interests are focused upon the
genotoxic responses of nanomaterials and developing the use of high resolution
imaging and force measurement tools to study the biophysical properties of
diseased cells at the nanoscale.
About
the Speakers
Professor Vicki Stone, is a Professor of Toxicology at Napier University,
Edinburgh. She leads research investigating the effects of nanoparticles on a
wide range of cell types from the lung, liver, immune system and
gastrointestinal tract. Collaborations also investigate effects of reproductive
toxicity and ecotoxicology of nanoparticles. Projects are funded by EC FP6 and
FP7, NERC, EPSRC, Defra, The Colt Foundation and Unilever.
Professor Jamie Lead, The University of Birmingham, UK
Jamie Lead is Professor in Environmental Nanoscience at the University
of Birmingham, UK and is interested in the behaviour and impact of both natural
and manufactured nanoparticles (NPs) in aquatic and terrestrial systems. His
research group is performing fundamental research into the chemistry and
transport of a range of NP types. He is also investigating methods to
accurately quantify concentration and physico-chemical form in the environment
and to quantify dose appopriately. He is also investigating the relationship
between these physico-chemcial aspects and biological behaviour (uptake,
accumulation and effects).
Dr
Richard Handy, Plymouth Unversity, UK
Dr Handy is an expert in environmental toxicology (20 years experience), with
special expertise on the effects of nanoparticles on fish, and also has
interests in wildlife pathology and organ-level effects of pollutants. He is
also an expert on organ perfusion methods for fish and other invitro methods.
Dr Handy has been working with nanoparticles since 2006, and has published a
number of primary works on fish, as well as dietary/food chain issues for
nanoparticle exposure. The latter includes environment and human health issues.
Dr
Stephen Feist, Centre for Environment, Fisheries and
Aquaculture Science (Cefas), Weymouth, UK.
Dr Feist leads the Aquatic Animal Disease Group with responsibility for disease
diagnosis and the research programme. He is an expert in pathology of aquatic
animals (29 years experience), with special expertise on the effects
environmental contaminants on fish, particularly hepatocarcinogenesis in wild
fish stocks. Dr Feist has been working with nanoparticles since 2006.
Professor
Wolfgang G. Kreyling, is
a biophysicist coordinating all aerosol-related research within the GSF Focus
Network Aerosols and Health spanning R&D work over five GSF-institutes
ranging from material sciences to toxicology and epidemiology. He also is
deputy director of the GSF-Institute for Inhalation Biology. He chairs the
R&D program on dosimetry of ultrafine aerosol particles and engineered nanoparticles
in the respiratory tract and secondary target organs like the cardiovascular
and the central nervous system. His research interests range from aerosol
sciences and nanoparticle technology to biophysics of the lungs reaching from
the characterization of ambient aerosols to particle dosimetry and nanoparticle
lung interactions on the level of the entire organism, cells like alveolar
macrophages, and molecular compounds.
Professor Ken Donaldson BSc, PhD, DSc, CBiol, FIBiol,
FRCPath, FFOM is the Scientific
Director of the ELEGI Colt Laboratory in the
Medical School of the University of Edinburgh, where he is Professor of
Respiratory Toxicology. Prior to this he was Professor of Pathobiology, Napier
University and before that Head of the Toxicology Unit, Institute of
Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh. KD is recognized as an expert in the
mechanisms of lung disease caused by inhaled agents especially particles and
fibres and in this capacity has provided expert opinion and consultancy to the
US Environmental Protection Agency (North Carolina), US Health Effects
Institute (Massachusetts), World Health Organisation, International Agency for
Research on Cancer (Lyon France), WHO Air Quality and Health (Bonn, Germany),
UK Medical Research Council, UK Health and Safety Executive, etc. KD sits on
three government committees pertaining
to toxicology of air pollutants – Committee on the Medical Effects of Air
Pollution (COMEAP) and Expert Panel on Air Quality Standards (EPAQS) and
Advisory committee on Hazardous Substances. KD has given advice on the
toxicology of fibres to the US EPA and UK HSE.
In relation to inhaled nanoparticles (NP) and nanotubes, KD was one of
the initial proponents of the NP theory of the toxicity of particulate air
pollution and has acted as a consultant to various bodies on the risk from NPs
such as EU (SCEHNIR, COST), European Science Foundation, Health and Safety
Executive, ECETOC and the WHO. He has published over 280 scientific papers, a
large number on mechanism of lung injury caused by inhaled agents and currently
has a research programme into the adverse effects of nanoparticles on the lungs and cardiovascular
system. He is Founding Editor of the journal ‘Particle and Fibre Toxicology’ and
Co Editor of ‘Particle Toxicology’, 2007, CRC Press.
This
meeting was organised by Euroscicon
(www.euroscicon.com), a team of dedicated professionals working for the
continuous improvement of technical knowledge transfer to all scientists. Euroscicon believe
that they can make a positive difference to the quality of science by providing
cutting edge information on new technological advancements to the scientific
community. This is provided via our exceptional services to individual
scientists, research institutions and industry.
The
event was hosted by 'BioPark (www.biopark.co.uk), a research and
development centre in Welwyn Garden City providing specialist facilities and
support for bioscience and health technology businesses to grow, and to develop
new products and technologies
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