Periodic Reporting for period 2 - ENDONANO (Quantitative detection of bacterial endotoxin by novel nanotechnological approaches)
Berichtszeitraum: 2021-01-01 bis 2023-06-30
The ENDONANO ESRs performed numerous dissemination activities (such as preparing publications and taking part in international scientific meetings or in public events such as the European Biotech Week and “Italia: l'arte della scienza”, and INDUSTRY DAYS and AUTOMOTIVE HUNGARY) and attended courses on topics such as “Responsible Research and Innovation”, “Communication to the general public and risk communication”, and “IP, regulatory aspects and entrepreneurship”. The latter activities helped building their scientific background and increasing their opportunities for a future, successful career in science. Therefore, the project has achieved significant scientific advances and has successfully trained four young scientist in the field of nanomaterials or nano-medical devices through a truly interdisciplinary approach.
ENDONANO’s originality and innovation lies in the new ideas and technical advancement that the partners will deploy towards the development of novel unbiased methods for endotoxin detection, which could be applied to reliably measuring endotoxin also in complex matrices, even beyond the duration of the project. The technological objectives of ENDONANO are innovative inasmuch they aim at identifying, by applying modern tools of cellular and molecular biology, material science and advanced optics, new integrated ways of endotoxin sensing and quantitative evaluation. The final innovative objective is that of translating the identified features of endotoxin detection and measurement into new knowledge for future robust and valid assays for endotoxin measurement in complex matrices. The complementarity of the expertise within the ENDONANO consortium (including industries and academic partners) has created the optimal synergy for reaching the common research training goals. The plan of fellows’ secondments has been the basis for ensuring the effectiveness of networking. The eventual research training goal, i.e. the creation of a core group of technologically advanced immuno-toxicologists, goes well beyond current programmes. ENDONANO aims at merging immunology, nanotechnology and physics into a broader approach to address toxicology, safety and related regulatory issues that is expected to attain a deeper vision of the problem, and to propose valid tools and realistic solutions.