May 4 2015
LGC is inviting nanotechnology manufacturers, standardisation organisations, regulators, research institutes and academia to a special workshop to mark the end of a three-year project to develop methods to characterise nanomaterials in complex matrices.
The workshop will be held at LGC in Teddington on 28 May 2015, from 9.30am to 5pm and is free to register.
The NanoChOp project was undertaken to solve the measurement challenges associated with characterising nanomaterials when they have interacted with complex media. Nanomaterials are usually characterised for their chemical, physical and optical properties in their pure form or in simple idealised matrices. However, when they interact within complex systems, their properties can change significantly affecting their functionality and behaviour, and creating a potential risk to human health.
The workshop will reveal the challenges and the achievements of the NanoChOp project, which was funded under the European Metrology Research Programme and involved collaborations with National Measurement Institutes, academics and industry from across Europe. It will also highlight the long-term impact of the project.
Heidi Goenaga-Infante, NanoChOp project co-ordinator and Principal Scientist for inorganic analysis at LGC, will present an overview of the NanoChOp project and outline the challenges that had to be overcome and the outcomes of the project.
Heidi said: “Ultimately, the NanoChOp project will help to alleviate public concern regarding the safety of many applications of nanoparticles by providing the nanobiotechnology and nanomedicine sectors with validated protocols to perform their analysis. In turn, this will lead to regulatory and legislative bodies being equipped with coherent and reliable data to make informed decisions.“
Stefan Weigel, from RIKILT – Institute of Food Safety within Wageningen University and Research Centre in The Netherlands - will provide the keynote presentation entitled, ‘NanoDefine: An integrated analytical approach to implement the EC definition of nanomaterial’. The presentation will set out how the NanoDefine project will provide answers to the question ‘what is or isn’t a nanomaterial?’.
The workshop will also include talks from Alex Price, from the British Standards Institution, on standards in nano-technology and particle sizing; Nick Boley, from the Government Chemist Programme, on nanomaterials regulations and measurement implications; and Gert Roebben, from the Joint Research Council in Belgium, on the challenges and outcomes of material selection and preparation processes.
This European Metrology Research Programme (EMRP) project is jointly funded by the EMRP participating countries within the European Association of National Metrology Institutes (EURAMET) and the European Union.