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NanoReTox

The reactivity and toxicity of engineered nanoparticles: risks to the environment and human health

Project aim

To identify the potential risks posed by engineered nanomaterial to the environment and human health by comprehensively addressing 5 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 bioavailability – their ability to interact with and/or penetrate mammalian and aquatic cells and organisms, and will bioavailability result in toxicity?
  3. Is there a pattern of cellular reactivity and/or toxicity related to physicochemical properties - in other words, 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?
An international team

We have assembled a team of experts from across the EU and the US whose combined expertise can address these questions in depth. 

The project has a dedicated website at NanoReTox.

Print version
Project coordinator
Project partners
  • Miren Cajaraville (Universidad del Pais Vasco/Euskal Herriko Unibertsitatea)
  • Valery Forbes (Roskilde Universitetscenter)
  • Douglas Gilliland (Commission of the European Communities – Directorate General Joint Research Centre)
  • Ragnar Lofstedt (Kings College London)
  • Sam Luoma (United States Geological Survey & Natural History Museum)
  • Lucia Migliore (Universita di Pisa)
  • Catherine Mouneyrac (Université Catholique de l’Ouest)
  • Miriam Oron (Ahava – Dead Sea Laboratories Ltd)
  • Paul Reip (Intrinsiq Materials Ltd)
  • Michèle Romeo (Université de Nice Sophia Antipolis)
  • Terry Tetley (Imperial College London)
Post-doctoral research assistant
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