NanoTransKinetics

NanoTransKinetics main objective is to establish techniques for modeling relationships between nanoparticle properties and toxicity (including interactions of nanoparticles with biological systems).
The project focuses on understanding the mechanisms of nanoparticle uptake into, and sub-cellular transport within cells and through biological barriers with the objective of enabling much more rapid progress towards a screening approach, where predictions of nanoparticle bioaccumulation could be made on the basis of limited in vitro screening data.
NanoTransKinetics will be the first integrated effort to develop phenomenological models based on high quality experimental data of nanoparticles interactions with cells and biological barriers. It aims to characterize the hazard posed by nanoparticles in relation to their ability to cross biological barriers, based on nanoparticle concentration fluxes rather than the traditional ADME approaches which are based on equilibrium properties, which are not applicable to nanoparticles as they interact with cells in a biological manner, and are actively transported within cells.