Evaluation of the Role of Size Dispersity on Nanoparticle Uptake and Ecotoxicity

PI：Baalousa，Mohammed建议编号：1437307机构：南卡罗来纳大学哥伦比亚分校标题：尺寸分散对纳米颗粒摄取和生态毒性的作用评估纳米颗粒(NP)对环境的毒性研究往往得出相互矛盾的结果。例如，纳米颗粒(NPs)对水生生物有明显的负面影响，但关于NP尺寸对其毒性的作用，报道了不同的结果。PI和Co-PI假设，这种相互矛盾的证据很可能是由于NP本身的异质性和多分散性造成的。他们假设，多分散性会导致对NP性质的不正确测量，并导致对NP剂量的低估，特别是如果毒性效应只是由于多分散悬浮液的一小部分。该提案将专门调查NP分散性对其性能和毒性的影响，调查NP的大小、分散性、形态和小面暴露等属性，以及它们在纳米毒性中的作用。该项目的结果将有助于通过识别可能导致有害影响的特征来改进NPs的设计，并有助于了解NPs的命运、行为、摄取和毒性。这一领域的进展将有助于纳米技术及其益处的可持续发展。根据这项提议的计划，私人投资机构将直接与南卡罗来纳州的K-12机构和代表不足的少数族裔(URM)合作，并为更广泛的外联制作远程学习材料。私人投资机构在确保将任职人数不足的群体纳入培训和外联活动方面有着良好的记录，并将在考虑到外联原则的情况下招聘博士候选人。南卡罗来纳大学是卡内基一号研究密集型大学中非洲裔美国学生人数最多的大学之一(13%)。为了实现他们的目标，PI必须首先严格表征他们合成的NPs，然后将NPs的各种性质与观察到的毒性联系起来。为此，投资促进机构将寻求建立一种可重复使用的方案，用于合成多分散和单分散的NPs，并将其分离成一系列单分散的亚组分。然后，他们将使用多种方法表征NPs(例如，大小、分散性、形态、小平面)，并使用标准化的多盐河口桡足类动物模型(Amphiascus tenuiremis.)来量化NPs的多分散和单分散亚组分的吸收和毒性。通过这种方法，PI和Co-PI试图提供一种可被科学界广泛使用的方法学，用于类似和其他研究，以及在其他领域，如药物输送，其中NP尺寸分散在文献中已被认识为一个混淆结果的问题。

PI: Baalousha, MohammedProposal Number: 1437307 Institution: University of South Carolina at Columbia Title: Evaluation of the Role of Size Dispersity on Nanoparticle Uptake and EcotoxicityStudies of nanoparticle (NP) toxicity to the environment often come up with contradictory results. For example, nanoparticles (NPs) have demonstrable negative impact on aquatic organisms, but divergent results have been reported on the role of NP size on their toxicity. The PI and Co-PIs hypothesize that such contradictory evidence is most likely due to the heterogeneity and polydispersity of the NPs themselves. They hypothesize that polydispersity can cause incorrect measurement of NP properties and lead to an underestimation of NP dose, particularly if the toxic effects are only due to a sub-fraction of the polydisperse suspensions. The proposal will specifically investigate the effect of NP dispersity on their properties and on their toxicities, investigating such NP properties as size, dispersity, morphology, and facet exposure, and their effect in nanotoxicity. The results of this project will help improve the design of NPs by identifying features that can induce deleterious effects, and also help Understand the fate, behavior, uptake, and toxicity of NPs. Progress in this area will aid a sustainable development of nanotechnology and its benefits. Under this proposal's plan, the PIs will work directly with K-12 institutions and underrepresented minorities (URMs) in South Carolina and produce distance-learning materials for wider outreach. The PIs have a strong track record of ensuring inclusion of under-represented groups in training and outreach activities and will recruit for the PhD candidate with outreach principles in mind. The University of South Carolina has one of the highest numbers of African American students for a Carnegie One research intensive university (13%).To achieve their goals, the PIs must first rigorously characterize the NPs they synthesize and then correlate the various properties of the NPs with their observed toxicities. To that end, the PIs will seek to establish a reproducible protocol for the synthesis of poly- and mono-dispersed NPs and their separation into a set of monodisperse subfractions. They will then characterize the NPs (e.g., size, dispersity, morphology, facets) using a multi-method approach and quantify the uptake and toxicity of polydisperse versus monodisperse subfractions of NPs using the standardized polyhaline estuarine copepod model, Amphiascus tenuiremis.With this approach, the PI and Co-PIs seek to provide a methodology that can be widely used by the scientific community for similar and other studies, as well as in other fields such as drug delivery, where NP size dispersity has been realized as an issue of confounding results in the literature.