UCLA, partners establish new center on environmental effects of nano...(as the new center's director. We see th...)

Arturo Keller, a professor at the Donald Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, will serve as the center's associate director. Co-principal investigators on the center's research executive committee include Hilary Godwin, of the UCLA Department of Environmental Health Sciences; Yoram Cohen, of the UCLA Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering; and Roger Nisbet, of the UC Santa Barbara Department of Ecology, Evolution and Marine Biology.

The UC CEIN will employ approaches that differ from traditional toxicity testing, which relies mainly on a complex set of whole-animal-based testing strategies.

"This approach cannot handle the rapid pace at which nanotechnology-based enterprises are generating new materials and ideas," said Nel, who is also director of the UC Lead Campus Program for Nanotoxicology Research and Training, at UCLA. "The CEIN's development of a comprehensive computational risk ranking will allow powerful risk predictions to be made by and for the academic community, industry, the public and regulating agencies."

Establishing a predictive science of nanomaterials toxicity is an important and timely approach for nanotechnology-based enterprises wishing to avoid the problems faced by the chemical industry, where only a few hundred of the approximately 40,000 industrial chemicals have undergone toxicity testing, making it very challenging to control the toxicological impact of chemicals in the environment.

Building on this seminal concept, the UC CEIN brings together a highly integrated, multidisciplinary, synergistic team with the skills set to address the complexities of environmental science, ecotoxici
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