Speaker: Prof. Flemming R. Cassee, professer from the Utrecht University

Title: Metrics that Affect the Safety of (Multicomponent) Nanomaterials: Implications for Safe by Design Approaches and Risk Assessment of Nanomaterials

Time: 9:30 October 13th, 2025 (Monday)

Venue: No.4 Conference room at the 3rd floor, Building No.5

Host: Prof. Chunying Chen

Info. of Speaker：

Flemming Cassee, inhalation EUROTOX board certified toxicologist since 1995, supports government authorities, the World Health organization and other public bodies by coordinating and conducting research and providing advice to policymakers. He is the professor in Inhalation Toxicology at the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences at the Utrecht University, the Netherlands.

He has taken various management position and is the senior scientist for the Inhalation Toxicology Unit. He is has been the President Dutch Society of Toxicology, as well as the President of the Inhalation and Respiratory Specialty Section and the Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials Specialty Section of the USA Society of Toxicology. He also co-leads the EU Nanosafety Cluster. He is also editor in chief of Particle and Fibre Toxicology and organizer of various scientific events include the International Particle Toxicology Conference (IPTC) of which the next will be held 28-30 August 2022 in Santa Fe, USA. He has regularly published scientific reports and articles in international journals and presents research results at international conferences. In addition, he serves on a number of international advisory committees.

Abstract:

Safe-by-design (SbD) is not new, the method has been used for years by the industry to minimize the toxicity of products. The SbD concept is tuned towards timely identification of uncertainties and potential risks as well as timely measures to reduce or eliminate these uncertainties and risks during an innovation project. SbD is not a stand-alone concept: it is designed so that it can be seamlessly integrated into current industrially used innovation processes. In essence, designers and developers of new nanomaterials should include toxicological expertise in a very early stage, rather than waiting under risk assessment has to be performed prior to bringing a product to the market. Cell-based assay are to be preferred as being fast and to avoid the use of animals. Cellular dosimetry can be used by particle toxicologists to accurately calculate the delivered dose to cells for various particles and under different in vitro experimental conditions as a function of exposure time. Knowledge on the deposited dose will facilitate the extrapolation from experimental data to humans. Most importantly, incorporating such dosimetric methodologies in the study design enables particle toxicologists to bring in vitro and in vivo doses to the same scale, an important step towards the development and validation of in vitro cellular screening assays. Ultimately, a careful attention to dosimetric details allows a scientifically justified risk extrapolation of toxicological results from animal studies to humans. Examples of exposures to nanomaterials such as graphene oxide, gold, multicomponent and carbonaceous particles from in vivo and human clinical studies will be presented..