With National Science Foundation support, Jackson State University will continue development of the Interdisciplinary Nanotoxicity Center. The Center goal is to enhance knowledge of basic properties and environmental characteristics, toxicity, and applications of nanomaterials. There is a compelling need for studying potential toxicity of nanomaterials and advancing efficient, fast and inexpensive computational approaches to predict toxicity of new species. Understanding of structures, characteristics and biological activities of man-made nanomaterials is critical to prediction of their impacts on the environment and human health. Nanoparticle exposure is common, but short- and long-term exposure effects are currently not fully understood, especially since the primary and agglomerate sizes, surface area, and the characteristics of the surface play such important roles. Conversely, nanotechnology can also be used to create new nanomedicines, sensors, pollutant filters and catalysts with important societal benefits.
The Interdisciplinary Nanotoxicity Center focuses on two research subprojects: addressing nanomaterials discovery and deployment. Subproject 1 focuses on multifunctional nanoparticles and their model counterparts: structures, properties, interaction with environment and applications. The aim of this project is to systematically study structure, energetics and optics of metal and semiconductor nanoparticles and their bioconjugates in various environments. Multifunctional environmental safe magnetic core-plasmonic shell nanopaticle based assay for the detection of toxic pathogens selectively from water will be designed and developed, and the possible use of multifunctional nanoparticles for selective removal of toxic pathogens from drinking water is investigated.
Subproject 2 investigates toxicity of nanoparticles as a function of environmental factors: experimental studies and computational modeling to include different aspects of the development and production of nanomaterials and investigation of their toxicity. The overarching goal is to develop an operational model for directing production of green metal oxide nanoparticles and to conduct in vitro and in vivo toxicological studies under selected environmental conditions by using engineered metal oxide nanoparticles of controlled size and shape. In addition, computational studies are carried out to develop reliable computational models effective for prediction of physico-chemical characteristics and toxicity of nanomaterials.
Both research areas are strongly interconnected and designed to enhance knowledge of basic properties and environmental characteristics, toxicity, and applications of nanomaterials. The Center utilizes the Universal Design for Learning model to maximize learning outputs of diverse student populations.
