Join the Community
(Archived, 11/8/09)
This is a community-driven initiative, and so it stands or falls on the buy-in it gets from people and organizations generating and using nanotoxicology information.
If you would like to be associated with the initiative (either as an individual or as an organization) – and we would really encourage this if you think good nanomaterial characterization is an important step in relevant nanotoxicology studies – please add your name and affiliation in comments below.
Your details will then be added to the MINChar Initiative interest group.
Thank you
Note that appearing on this list does not necessarily constitute endorsement of all content on this website. However, it does represent an expression of interest in raising the quality of nanomaterial physicochemical characterization in nanotoxicology studies, and a recognition that the minimum information for nanomaterial characterization posted here is an important step in the right direction.
{ 56 comments }
Excellent starting point for future discussions
Good start. Please add CEINT (Center for Environmental Implications of NanoTechnology) to links.
http://www.ceint.duke.edu/
Laura Hodson, NIOSH
I am joining to support this initiative.
This effort is a critical step in providing consistent data for research and utilization. I would like to join the discussion.
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The use of a minimum set of characterization elements for nanoscale materials is essential to making solid scientific contributions to nanotechnology and nanotoxicology.
Congratulations on this website.
I am glad to see this effort take on a formal shape. BASF subscribes to good characterization of nanomaterials, and we endorse this organization to promote it.
This is an excellent initiative. The minimum set of characterization elements has been long overdue.
Great start!
It will be important for journals to establish editorial standards for minimum characterization data required for publication. Without the characterization data, retrospective evaluation of the studies will be hampered. QA/QC guidelines and standard reference materials will be essential as well.
This important initiative will catalyze future cross-referencing of toxicology studies, creation of frameworks for the assessment of hazard and the development of cross-cutting tools for risk assessment. This is the first of many critical steps toward the prospective identification of potential risks and the management and/or elimination of those elements of current and future nanotechnologies that confer harm.
Characterisation, based on agreed parameters and methods, is fundamental in making progress on these issues. I look forward to the development of this initiative.
An understanding of how physicochemical characteristics of nanoparticles influence potential toxicity will aid in the development of a safer nanotechnology. This initiative will contribute immensely to improving awareness of this need and providing a benchmark against which researchers can judge their own work and the work of others. Beware though, not all techniques can be used when particles are dispersed in biological media, so this initiative will also help to highlight the need to further develop characterisation techniques.
I agree that adequate fundamental characterization of the nanoscale materials is abolutely essential to ensure the responsible development nanotechnology and the appropriate contextual basis for any nanotoxicology studies.
Characterization is key is we want to say anything at all about the testing results.
Perfect timing. I look foward to be associated with this initiative
Excellent initiative. The website will be a valuable resource for both toxicologists and researchers working on nanoscale pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, and other aspects of nanomedicine.
Without characterization the toxicology data are meaningless.
This is an excellent framework for current and future investigations incuding meta-data analyses with promise to help identify the key physico-chemical nanomaterial characteristics that influence biodynamics and toxic responses.
This initiative is a terrific concept. Characterization of nanomaterials is key for understanding their potential toxicity.
Excellent! This information will be essential to the risk assessment of nanomaterials. Thank you for putting this in the spotlight.
Great job on the overall website for the organization of this vital information.
As somebody who uses nanotoxicology information, I think the development of this website is another solid step forward in the promotion of a minimum set of characterization data for all relevant studies. Thank you, and let’s keep the ball rolling!
This initiative is attempting to address a critical deficiency in many nanotoxicology studies, i.e. the lack of adequate nanoparticle characterization data. There will likely be significant debate about what parameters need to be measured and reported. But I think many in this area of research agree that without characterization data, it is difficult, if not impossible, to compare data from different studies.
Looking forward to participate in this initiative.
Nanoparticle technology allows the first time to generate and modify very small particles with a recently unknown precision. Yet this precise handling requires careful characterization which will allow for material optimization and thereby warranting safety and sustainability.
This new initiative is really needed since nanomaterial characterization is so important for nanotoxicology studies.
This is an excellent initiative. Characterization of nanomaterials is key for understanding their potential toxicity.
From a regulatory perspective, this initiative is badly needed.
Characterization and sampling methods for nano materials are needed to help researchers develop safe work practices.
I think this is an important initiative which will drive the requirement for toxicological characterisation of engineered nanomaterials
Great idea. Its not going to be easy. Characteristion on the nano-scale is important not only for tox studies but all other fields of nanotechnology.
As the occupational medicine and medical toxicology communities examine the potential impact of nanomaterials on human health, data that characterizes the nature of the nanomaterial will be of considerable value in reaching risk management decisions.
Very good initiative. There is a great need to improve the charaterization of the nanomaterials.
Let’s hope this initiative helps address a fundamental problem for assessing the potential environmental and health risks of nanomaterials.
Standardising characterisation is absolutely critical if we are to be able to compare work across research teams, but due to lack of access to high cost tools, it won’t be easy.
I hope this can also address standards for reporting how nanoparticles are prepared for experiments because that is also urgently needed.
As a neuroscientist interested in particles as both beneficial delivery systems and potentially deleterious agents I think this is a really worthwhile venture. Careful characterisation will help us narrow down the common factors between different species of particles which elicit certain responses. It’s going to be a challenge to devise robust assays in a biological environment – but one we should rise to.
Developing uniform standards of nanoparticle characterization that are widely accepted by researchers and publishers should add consistency and credibility to the field. But, implementation will not be easy.
I think we all should support more responsible nanotechnology research.
Being able to understand and apply the requisite characteristics of dose and response from controlled toxicity studies of well-characterized engineered nanomaterials will be essential to the successful advancement of much of the nanoindustry.
As a new entrant into the field of nanoparticle toxicology, I find this initiative an important starting point and guide for my research. Thank you.
This is an excellent initiative and Battelle is proud to join.
Cheers
John
Characterization is important not only for toxicity studies, but for exposure, as well. This effort brings a much needed consistency to the development of characterization standards.
It is important and exciting to see this initiative. It will be a valuable resource for translational research in medicine.
Great initiative.. as part of the Canadian group involved in environmental nanotoxicology, we will closely follow the website and it’s updates.
It is difficult to compare studies in the literature when adequate characterisation is lacking and such information may be key to interpreting conflicting results. This is a great initiative and will no doubt improve the quality of the scientific studies performed so that firm conclusions on the safey of nanomaterials can be established.
From the messages below I think we all agree that characterisation is a key step in the development and implementation of a safer nanotechnology sector. It is important though that discussions continue to take place concerning what level of characterisation is required in this context and how we can tackle this subject when dealing with soil and sedimentary systems.
It is high time that we realize that characterization is an important step, since nanoparticle technology has now come to stay for many more years, for ever, if I am not exaggerating. Therefore, it is more pertinent to safeguards in place before many more products are released in to the environment, intentionally or otherwise. I am an aerobiologist dealing with probable nanoparticle interactions with the microbes and subsequent impact on microbes??? I have organized a symposium in March 2007 by name AEROBIONANO-2007 to highlight such issues. Dispersal of these nanomaterials/particles in air, water and soil is going to be a major concern which need to be addressed on war footing.
I look forward to keeping in touch with this important initiative.
This is a critical issue. I look forward to seeing this initiative develop further.
Can I draw the attention of the community to a new technique that you might not have come across. NanoSight produces a laser based optical microscope with which nanoparticles as small as 10-20nm in a liquid can be seen directly and idividually(but not imaged!). By analysing a video of their Brownian motion we can give you their size, particle size distribution profile and concentration in real-time. Compared to DLS, we do well in polydisperse/complex systems. Sorry if this sounds a bit like an advert (obviously it is a little bit!) but please do have a look at http://www.nanosight.com.
We’re really keen to work with researchers in the nanotox area given we’ve had some success already in this field.
Thank you for bringing us all together, Andrew.
-Emily Lesher, Colorado School of Mines
An excellent way to encourage international multidiscplinary discussion.
Thank you for telling me about this initiative. The only way to understand toxicity is to understand exposure, and characterization is a key to understanding exposure.
An important area Good characterisation of nanomaterials is a prerequisite for understanding any potential nanotoxicology
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