A full house for nanotoxicity day

The day focused on a new discipline, the study of toxicity produced by the effect of nanoparticles and nanomaterials. Nanotoxicity has emerged as manufactured nanoparticles can have properties and effects that are very different from those of the same materials in conventional sizes, or can have the same dimensions as certain biological molecules and interact with them, posing new risks to health.

The day was opened by Josep Samitier, director of IBEC and coordinator of Nanomed Spain; Jaume Veciana, coordinator of Nanbiosis, one of Spain’s 29 scientific and technical infrastructures (ICTS); and Miguel Ángel Rodiel, coordinator of MATERPLAT, the Advanced Materials and Nanomaterials Spanish Technological Platform.

Speakers included representatives from companies such as GrapheneTech, Gaiker and Tecnalia, and researchers from ICN2, Biopraxis Research, CIBER-BBN projects and universities, and covered such topics as the toxicity of graphene, regulatory considerations for the optimal development of nanomedicines, and the various tools and methods available to monitor them.