HARMLESS @ NanoTox 2024

The 11th International Conference on NanoToxicology – NanoTox 2024 – took place from September 23 to 25, 2024, in the historic centre of Venice at Centro Culturale Don Orione Artigianelli. The conference attracted more than 230 participants from research and academic institutions, as well as from industry, governmental agencies, and experts from 30 countries around the world.

The conference provided a valuable platform for convening leading experts focused on the challenges related to safe and sustainable multicomponent nanomaterials (MCNM) by developing novel tools for evaluating human and environmental hazards, alongside strategies for nanomaterial characterization, classification, grouping, and read-across for risk analysis and sustainability assessment.

NanoTox 2024 created an optimal environment for sharing developments in the areas of ecotoxicity and risk management of advanced nanomaterials. Key discussions centred on the latest research concerning hazard and exposure assessments, as well as innovative strategies for risk management and governance. The event emphasised the importance of grouping and read-across techniques, along with New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) for enhanced risk assessments. Additionally, participants explored sustainability assessments through Safe(r)-by-Design (SbD) and Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design (SSbD) approaches, ensuring that safety is prioritised from the early stages of material development. The conference also examined the molecular mechanisms of toxicity, focusing on nanocell circuits that drive Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOP) and Modes of Action (MoA), in conjunction with big data management and modelling solutions that facilitate these advancements.

NanoTox 2024 proudly acknowledges the generous support of its sponsors, who play a crucial role in advancing the dialogue on eco-toxicity and risk management of advanced NMs. Our silver sponsors, EBRC and the National Cheng Kung University in Taiwan bring invaluable expertise and resources to the event, enhancing the collaborative atmosphere. We also extend our gratitude to our bronze sponsors, QSARLab and Stat Peel, whose contributions help facilitate important discussions and innovations in the field. Additionally, we appreciate the participation of Cytek as an exhibitor, showcasing cutting-edge solutions that align with the NanoTox mission. Finally, our publication partnership with CSBJ ensures that the insights and findings shared at NanoTox 2024 reach a broader audience, furthering the impact of our collective efforts.

The event featured a comprehensive series of 122 oral and 80 poster presentations highlighting, among others, key findings from the three EU H2020 organising projects DIAGONAL, HARMLESS and SUNSHINE.

One highlight of the conference was the 24/7 poster pitch presentation session, where all poster authors got the chance to present their research in 24 seconds, followed by 7 keywords to highlight their work.

Special thanks to the four keynote speakers Sabina Halappanavar, (Health Canada and University of Ottawa, Canada), Mark Wiesner, (Duke University and University of Rennes), Chunying Chen (National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China),and Thomas Kuhlbusch (Federal Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, Germany) for their inspiring and insightful presentations, as well as to Georgios Katalagarianakis, (former European Commission) for his encouraging summarising words in the closing ceremony.

The scientific conference was followed by the highly successful NMBP-16 Final Public Event, where DIAGONAL, HARMLESS, and SUNSHINE presented their collaborations, mutual strengths, synergies and complementarities as well as their main results to a broad audience of stakeholders, fostering valuable discussions and insights.

The following prizes were awarded during the conference:

Four Oral Presentation Prizes for Young Researchers, selected by the Scientific Committee, were given to:
- Han Lianyong (Helmholtz Center Munich, Germany) – Presentation title “Pathogenic dynamics of lung macrophages during injury and regeneration caused by fiber-shaped nanomaterials”
- Arianna Livieri (GreenDecision Srl, Italy) – Presentation title “Advancing the development of Safe-and-Sustainably-by-Design toolboxes for advanced materials: Similarities between the SUNSHINE SSbD approach and Early4AdMa”
- Sara Marchetti (POLARIS Research Centre, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy) – Presentation title “How might exposure to PM2.5 increase the severity of SARS-CoV-2 viral infections?”
- Elisa Moschini (Heriot-Watt University, UK) – Presentation title
  “Streamlining the Safe by Design of multicomponent nanomaterials via grouping – case studies”

Four Poster Prizes, kindly sponsored by CSBJ: Nanoscience and Advanced Materials Section and selected by the Scientific Committee as well as the conference participants, were given to:
- Lisa Kleon (University of Salzburg, Austria) – Poster title “How green zinc- and cerium-based nanomaterials relate to industrial benchmarks across safety and sustainability dimensions – identification of alternatives for potent antimicrobial agents”
- Dawid Falkowski (QSAR Lab, Poland) – Poster title “A New Computational Approach for Toxicity Assessment of Binary Mixtures: Combining Dose-Response Curves with Mixture Toxicity Indexes”
- Franz Friebel (femtoG AG, Switzerland) – Poster title “Nanoparticle release from pigments – introducing the absolute (nano)particle concentration in a powder”
- Roshan Shrestha (Molecular Microbiology and Structural Biochemistry, UMR 5086 CNRS, University of Lyon, France) – Poster title “Adsorption of Albumin on Graphene and Graphene Oxide: insight from molecular simulations”

The NanoTox 2024 conference was jointly organised by the three EU-funded H2020 projects DIAGONAL, HARMLESS, and SUNSHINE, and supported by the EU NanoSafety Cluster. The project partners as well as the members of their External Advisory Boards were heavily involved in the Organising and Scientific Committees.

The NanoTox 2024 overall program is available here, as well as a detailed agenda here. The Book of Abstracts is available here.

A selection of photos of NanoTox 2024 is available here.

As the final conference of the NMBP-16 projects, HARMLESS was heavily involved in the organisation of NanoTox 2024.

The following project partners were part of the Organising Committee: Tobias Stöger (HMGU), Anne Weiler (ERS), Beatriz Alfaro and Susanne Resch (BNN).

The following project partners were part of the Scientific Committee: Andreas Falk & Susanne Resch (BNN), Susan Dekkers & Wouter Fransman (TNO), Shareen Doak (SU), Roland Grafström (KI), Andrea Haase & Mario Pink (BfR), Nina Jeliazkova (IDEA), Tomasz Puzyn (UG), Otmar Schmid & Tobias Stoeger (HMGU), Blanca Suarez-Merino (TEMASOL), Ulla Vogel (NFA/NRCWE), Wendel Wohlleben (BASF). Similarly, the members of the External Advisory Board Philip Demokritou (Harvard University), Sabina Halappanavar (Health Canada), and Jarabek Annie (US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Next to that, the HARMLESS project findings and results were presented in 21 oral presentations, 9 poster presentations and 1 exhibitor booth where our experts engaged with the conference participants explaining the HARMLESS SSbD approach and showcasing our Decision Support System.

Oral presentations:

Han Lianyong (HMGU) – Title “Pathogenic dynamics of lung macrophages during injury and regeneration caused by fiber-shaped nanomaterials”
Hongyu Ren (HMGU) – Title “Linking the molecular mechanisms of alveolar macrophage cell death induced by inhaled nanoparticles with the subsequent pathological outcome”
Roland Grafström (KI) – Title “The HARMLESS Artificial Intelligence High-Throughput Screening Approach (AI-HTS) to Materials Safety Evaluation”
Veronica Dumit (KI) – Title “Assessing nanofiber pathogenicity through an omics-based meta-analysis”
Pekka Kohonen (KI) – Title “NAM-focused materials safety assessment utilizing predictive toxicogenomics space (PTGS)-driven retrieval of adverse outcome pathways in transcriptomics data”
Wouter Fransman (TNO) – Title “Nano Exposure Quantifier for Safe-by-Design of Advanced Materials”
Mario Pink (BfR) – Title “Challenges and insights in evaluating nanofiber toxicity using differentiated THP-1 cells: The importance of methodological standardization and material characterization”
Susan Dekkers (TNO) – Title “Making a simple and sensitive DSS for SSbD in the early innovation stages”
Wendel Wohlleben (BASF) – Title “Inhalation hazard of multicomponent perovskites by New Approach Methodologies (NAMs) for SSbD comparative screening”
Alicja Mikołajczyk (UG) – Title “New Nanoinfomatics Approach for Joint Effect Prediction of Advanced Multicomponent Nanomaterials: Computational Tool to Support SSbD Strategy”
Otmar Schmid (HMGU) – Title “Monitoring deposition, spatially resolved dosimetry and biokinetics of inhaled nanoparticles with cellular resolution throughout the entire murine lung”
Lin Yang (HMGU) – Title “AI-powered 3D imaging unveils fresh perspectives on pulmonary nanoparticle delivery in healthy and fibrotic murine lungs”
Mona Connolly (INIA CSIC) – Title “Use of a fish model and the oxidative stress paradigm in an integrated testing strategy for NM hazard assessment; a proof of principle study”
Agnieszka Gajewicz-Skretna (UG) – Title “A data-driven machine learning approach for predicting the hazard of advanced materials based on the integration of in silico, in chemico, and in vitro data”
Wendel Wohlleben (BASF) – Title “Concepts of similarity in a SSbD context: finding a balance of safety and functionality for five multicomponent Quantum Dots”
Wouter Fransman (TNO) – Title “Enabling Safe and Sustainable Innovation: transparent decision support”
Andrea Haase (BfR) – Title “The HARMLESS Early Warning System”
Blanca Suarez-Merino (TEMASOL) – Title “Safe and Sustainable by Design framework for advanced materials: the HARMLESS approach”
Veronique Adam (TEMASOL) – Title “Safe-and-Sustainable-by-Design for Advanced Materials – A case study on the agricultural use of imogolites”
Andrea Haase (BfR) – Title “Developing a NAMs qualification system to support regulatory acceptance”
Penny Nymark (KI) – Title “Validation of NAMs for nanomaterials: the importance of big data and its FAIRification for accelerating risk assessment”

Sabina Halappanavar (Health Canada), member of our External Advisory Board, joined the event as keynote speaker with a talk entitled “Navigating the Transition to Next-Generation Toxicity Testing for Advanced Materials”.

Poster presentations:

Wendel Wohlleben (BASF) – Title “ROS Activity in Carbonaceous Nanoparticles: The Influence of Surface Area and Chemistry”
Michalina Miszczak (UG) – Title “Dynamic QSAR modeling – time-dependent models of genotoxicity for advanced materials”
Siân Brooks (SU) – Title “Investigating the mechanisms responsible for multi-component nanomaterial toxicity using advanced lung models at the air-liquid interface: a tiered testing approach”
Marion Blayac (HMGU) – Title “Surface area-based hazard ranking of aerosolized nanomaterials from epithelial lung cells cultured under air-liquid interface conditions: A metaanalysis”
Hongisto Vesa (Misvik) on behalf of Gergana Tancheva (IDEA) – Title “Automatic workflow for in vitro high-throughput screening data fairification, preprocessing and scoring: A case study on nanomaterials”
Fabienne Testard (CEA) – Title “Modified imogolite nanotubes: How inner functional group modification in multicomponent HARN impact the toxicity”
Wendel Wohlleben (BASF) – Title “Assessing the dust released from inorganic aerogel mats: occupational release scenarios simulation and hazard implications in a SSbD context”
Veronique Adam (TEMASOL) – Title “Life Cycle Assessment of Advanced Materials – A case study of graphene oxide in drinking water filters”
Aleksandra Nowak (GU) – Title “Calculations for band gap of Ni-doped LaCoO3 (LaCoxNi1-xO3). A DFT+U approach”

Additionally, several HARMLESS partners co-chaired some of the sessions in the conference: Susanne Resch (BNN), Susan Dekkers and Wouter Fransmann (TNO), Blanca Suárez (TEMASOL), Tobias Stöger and Otmar Schmid (HMGU), Wendel Wohlleben (BASF), and Alicja Mikolajczyk (UG).

Furthermore, on 25 September, the three NMBP-16 projects DIAGONAL, HARMLESS, SUNSHINE held their NMBP-16 Final Public Event, where the projects’ ambitious goals and key achievements as well as their complementary perspectives and their key collaborations were presented. More details on this event here.

Right after their Final Public Event, the three sister projects organised the NMBP-16 Ambassadors Final Meeting, as reported here, where the main accomplishments, collaborations and success from each of the Ambassadors’ task forces were discussed.

Additionally, on 26 September, HARMLESS partners held their M45 General Assembly. The meeting was filled with very interesting presentations showing the latest progress in the project, along with constructive and fruitful discussions on the next steps for the final months of the project runtime.

It was a great opportunity to meet the project partners, to have offline discussions on the upcoming developments, to discuss the next steps and to interact with the nanosafety community on different topics!

Some impressions from the NanoTox’24: