Duke to lead new NSF, EPA center to study the environmental implications of nanotechnology

One activity for the research team over the coming year is to develop 32 tightly controlled and highly instrumented ecosystems in the Duke Forest in Durham, N.C. Known as mesocosms, these living laboratories provide areas where researchers can add nanoparticles and then study the resulting interactions and effects on plants, fish, bacteria and other elements.

"This mesocosm facility will be the nano-environment equivalent of the space station — a unique resource with tremendous potential that will be tapped by researchers throughout the center and beyond," said Wiesner.

The teams' plan to study manufactured, naturally occurring, and incidental nanoparticles recognizes that if data on nanoparticle risk are to be meaningfully interpreted, it is critical to quantify the relative exposures presented by these various sources of nanomaterials. Given that the potential diversity of nanomaterials is staggering, with countless variations in size, shape, surface chemistry, chemical composition, coatings and composites, the team's task is daunting, Wiesner said.

"Such research will address the influence of nanomaterials on processes ranging in scale from the subcellular to whole ecosystems," Wiesner continued. "We hope to explain factors controlling nanomaterial exposure, persistence, bioavailability, toxicity, metabolism, transfer through the food chain, and impacts on population evolution and critical ecosystem functions."

"CEINT will provide an unprecedented opportunity to develop a new technology, in this case nanotechnology, in a sustainable manner with respect to the environment and human health,'' said Lowry, center deputy director and an associate professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Carnegie Mellon University. "Identifying which nanomaterial properties are most environmentally benign enables the development of nanotechnologies with those desirable properties.''

CEINT will also collaborate with the newly formed International Alliance for NanoEHS Harmonization (IANH) , whose charter is to establish protocols for reproducible toxicological testing of nanomaterials in both cultured cells and animals. Universal standards for nanomaterials research and risk assessment will enable researchers to compare and contrast work conducted at laboratories around the world.