CEIN: Predictive Toxicology Assessment and Safe Implementation of Nanotechnology in the Environment

加州大学洛杉矶哥伦比亚大学不列颠哥伦比亚省大学加州大学戴维斯加州大学加州河滨大学圣巴巴拉得克萨斯大学埃尔帕索该奖项建立了一个研究和教育纳米材料与生命系统和非生物环境相互作用的中心。该中心的目标是对纳米材料的生物和生态毒理学以及它们在环境中的传输和转化有一个预测性的了解。该中心邀请一个高度跨学科、多机构的团队参与一个综合研究计划，以确定纳米材料的物理和化学性质如何决定其从细胞尺度到整个生态系统的环境影响。这种研究方法有望改变生态毒理学的科学，将高通量筛选分析与计算和生理建模相结合，以预测更高水平的生物组织的影响。该中心将联合工程、化学、物理、材料科学、细胞生物学、生态学、毒理学、计算机模拟和风险评估等领域，建立一门新的科学学科：环境纳米毒理学的基础。纳米材料的研究和纳米技术的发展正在迅速扩大，并取得有望造福国家的发现--S经济，并提高我们在地球上可持续生存的能力。现在迫切需要减少纳米材料在环境中可能产生的负面后果的不确定性，同时为其安全设计提供指导方针，以防止环境和毒物危害。该中心通过开发一种风险预测的科学框架来满足这一社会需求，该框架正在改变其潜力，以跟上纳米技术的商业扩张的步伐。该中心的另一个影响将是通过培训下一代纳米级科学家、工程师和监管者来预测和减轻纳米技术未来潜在的环境危害，为学术界、行业和政府开发人力资源。与其他中心的伙伴关系将成为向国内和国际的科学、教育和工业社区传播和整合研究成果的强大门户。该中心将通过针对加州社区大学的实习计划，为服务于国家需求的纳米技术中心网络做出贡献，并扩大代表和进入这一研究和知识网络的机会。外展活动，包括记者-科学家交流计划，将有助于让专家和广大公众了解围绕纳米技术的安全问题，以及如何安全地生产、使用和处置纳米材料。

University of California-Los AngelesColumbia University University of BremenUniversity of British ColumbiaUniversity of California-DavisUniversity of California-Riverside University of California-Santa BarbaraUniversity of Texas-El Paso This award establishes a Center to conduct research and education on the interactions of nanomaterials with living systems and with the abiotic environment. The goals of this Center are to develop a predictive understanding of biological and ecological toxicology for nanomaterials, and of their transport and transformation in the environment. This Center engages a highly interdisciplinary, multi-institutional team in an integrated research program to determine how the physical and chemical properties of nanomaterials determine their environmental impacts from the cellular scale to that of entire ecosystems. The research approach promises to be transformative to the science of ecotoxicology by combining high throughput screening assays with computational and physiological modeling to predict impacts at higher levels of biological organization. The Center will unite the fields of engineering, chemistry, physics, materials science, cell biology, ecology, toxicology, computer modeling, and risk assessment to establish the foundations of a new scientific discipline: environmental nanotoxicology.Research on nanomaterials and development of nanotechnology is expanding rapidly and producing discoveries that promise to benefit the nation?s economy, and improve our ability to live sustainably on earth. There is now a critical need to reduce uncertainty about the possible negative consequences of nanomaterials in the environment, while at the same time providing guidelines for their safe design to prevent environmental and toxicological hazards. This Center addresses this societal need by developing a scientific framework of risk prediction that is paradigm-shifting in its potential to keep pace with the commercial expansion of nanotechnology. Another impact of the Center will be development of human resources for the academic community, industry and government by training the next generation of nano-scale scientists, engineers, and regulators to anticipate and mitigate potential future environmental hazards of nanotechnology. Partnerships with other centers will act as powerful portals for the dissemination and integration of research findings to the scientific, educational, and industrial communities, both nationally and internationally. This Center will contribute to a network of nanotechnology centers that serve the national needs and expand representation and access to this research and knowledge network through an internship program directed at California community colleges serving underrepresented groups. Outreach activities, including a journalist?scientist communication program, will serve to inform both experts and the public at large about the safety issues surrounding nanotechnology and how to safely produce, use, and dispose of nanomaterials.