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Project Co-ordination: Dr. rer. nat. Jan Mehlich, Dipl.-Chem.
Duration: 5/10–9/12
Further information on “Nanotechnology”
Nanoparticles for medical purposes. Technical, medical, and ethical aspects
Nanotechnology surely is endowed with enormous potential for medical innovation and economic revenue. However, this technology also bears potential risks that may cause considerable social, ethical and legal problems. Questions to be dealt with are, for example: What are the moral boundaries for using human materials and animal models for this research? What will determine social acceptance of nanotechnological applications in medicine? Are there any moral boundaries of introducing nanotechnology into our life-world? How should a balanced legal regulation of research and application of nanotechnology look like? Though public concern about these issues cannot be ignored, the scientific study of these risks is still in its infancy. Nanoparticles, an especially promising application of nanotechnology in medicine and the main focus of this project, show, due to their smallness, novel physical properties affecting their toxicological behaviour. These physical properties are only partially known so far, thus, a risk evaluation – balancing medical benefits versus adverse effects – is methodologically demanding since it has to be performed under partial ignorance. Further points of interest are adverse health effects on third parties like medical personnel and pollution of the environment.
The project aims at several articles and an interdisciplinary memorandum on the social, ethical and legal implications of applying nanotechnology for medical purposes. The project group comprises scholars of different fields of nanotechnology with hands-on experience in the application of nanotechnology in medicine, complemented by experts on ethical and legal issues of research.
The project is part of the EU-funded NanoDiaRA consortium and the Europäische Akademie Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH is its administrative co-ordinator.
Project Group
Priv.-Doz. Dr. med. Felix Thiele, M.Sc., Europäische Akademie Bad Neuenahr-Ahrweiler GmbH, Germany (Chair)
Professor Dick Heinegård, Ph.D., University Lund, Department Experimental Medical Science, Sweden
Professor Dr. med. Frank Buttgereit, M.D., Ph.D., Charité Universitätsmedizin, Rheumatology Clinic, Berlin, Germany
Professor Dr.-Ing. Georg Duda, Charité Universitätsmedizin, Julius Wolff Institut, Berlin, Germany
Professor Dr.-Ing. Heinrich Hofmann, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Institute of Materials, Switzerland
Dr.-Ing. Margarethe Hofmann, MatSearch Consulting Hofmann, Lausanne, Switzerland
Michel Dreano, Ph.D., Merck Serono, Strategic Innovation & Research & Portfolio Management, Geneve, Switzerland
Professor Agu Tamm, M.D., Ph.D., Dr. M.Sc., University Tartu, Internal Medicine Faculty of Medicine, Estonia
Project Co-ordination: Dr. rer. nat. Jan Mehlich, Dipl.-Chem.
Tel./e-mail: +49 (0) 2641 973-322 • jan.mehlich
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