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Opportunities and Challenges for Integrating New In Vitro Methodologies in Hazard Testing and Risk Assessment
Author(s) -
Burden Natalie,
Clift Martin J. D.,
Jenkins Gareth J. S.,
Labram Briony,
Sewell Fiona
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
small
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.785
H-Index - 236
eISSN - 1613-6829
pISSN - 1613-6810
DOI - 10.1002/smll.202006298
Subject(s) - risk analysis (engineering) , hazard analysis , hazard , risk assessment , test strategy , computer science , biochemical engineering , nanotechnology , engineering , business , reliability engineering , biology , materials science , computer security , software , programming language , ecology
Nanomaterials are defined as materials with at least one dimension of 100 nm or less. Their small size confers unique properties that may alter the toxicity profile when compared to larger forms of the same material, requiring additional considerations for safety assessment. There has been a rise in the development of nanomaterials for many applications, and although traditional approaches for toxicity testing may address some of the new toxicity concerns, many may not be directly applicable to nanomaterials and new tools or approaches may need to be developed. Since nanomaterials can exist in many different forms, each of which may cause different adverse biological effects, reliance on traditional in vivo models for safety assessment will simply not be feasible or sustainable, given the volume of materials that may need to be tested. It is essential to consider and develop new in vitro methods that can be applied for hazard identification and risk assessment. Many challenges are associated with using alternative approaches to ensure they are as robust and reliable as traditional in vivo approaches, but by overcoming these issues and adopting new testing strategies there are opportunities to improve safety assessments and reduce the reliance on animal‐based toxicity testing strategies.