About NanoReTox

NanoReTox is a 4 year project which started officially in December 2008. The project’s objectives are to identify the potential risks to the environment and human health posed by free engineered (i.e. manmade) nanomaterials by comprehensively addressing five key questions:

1. How does the environment into which nanoparticles are released affect their physicochemical properties and their bioreactivity?
2. How does this impact on their ability to interact with and/or penetrate mammalian and aquatic cells and organisms (bioavailability) and will bioavailability result in toxicity?
3. Is there a pattern of cellular reactivity and/or toxicity related to physicochemical properties, i.e. a hierarchy of activity?
4. What combination of conditions discovered in (1-3) above are most likely to pose a risk to human health and the environment?
5. How can this information be incorporated in a risk assessment model?