InSphero Joins Global Consortium Dedicated to Enhancing Safety Testing of Engineered Nanomaterials

Nanosafety experts from more than 30 institutions convene in Swansea, Wales, for PATROLS project kick off meeting.

InSphero AG, the leading supplier of assay-ready 3D cell culture models for accelerating drug discovery and development, today announced that it is participating in a new €12.7m global project under the European Commission's Horizon 2020 initiative and led by Swansea University that will address the need for safer and more effective testing of nanomaterials, an area that is of crucial and growing importance to billion-pound markets including cosmetics, electronics, medicine and food.

The Physiologically Anchored Tools for Realistic nanOmateriaL hazard aSsessment (PATROLS) project involves 24 partners, across Europe, the USA, and Asia with representatives from academia, industry, and Government. The project is coordinated by Shareen Doak, Professor of Genotoxicology & Cancer at Swansea University Medical School, UK, and over the next 3.5 years, the PATROLS scientists aim to establish a battery of innovative, next-generation safety testing tools that more accurately predict adverse effects caused by long-term ENM exposure in humans and the environment. PATROLS launched on January 1, 2018, and on January 29-30, the international consortium, which includes academic, industrial, government, and risk assessment partners involved in the project, attended a conference at the Waterfront Museum, Swansea, Wales, UK to discuss developments and plans.

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