Lidar remote sensing of laser-induced incandescence on light absorbing particles in the atmosphere.

Carbon aerosol is now recognized as a major uncertainty on climate change and public health, and specific instruments are required to address the time and space evolution of this aerosol, which efficiently absorbs light. In this paper, we report an experiment, based on coupling lidar remote sensing with Laser-Induced-Incandescence (LII), which allows, in agreement with Planck's law, to retrieve the vertical profile of very low thermal radiation emitted by light-absorbing particles in an urban atmosphere over several hundred meters altitude. Accordingly, we set the LII-lidar formalism and equation and addressed the main features of LII-lidar in the atmosphere by numerically simulating the LII-lidar signal. We believe atmospheric LII-lidar to be a promising tool for radiative transfer, especially when combined with elastic backscattering lidar, as it may then allow a remote partitioning between strong/less light absorbing carbon aerosols.

Toward an international standardisation roadmap for nanomedicine.

The French National Metrology Institute (LNE) initiated a series of events to identify priorities for test methods and their harmonisation that directly address regulatory needs in Nanomedicine. One of these workshops entitled "The International Standardisation Roadmap for Nanomedicine" held in October 2023 (Paris, France) brought together key experts in the characterisation of nanomedicines and medical products containing nanomaterials, including the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, SINTEF Industry and the metrology institutes of France, the UK, the USA and Canada, two flagship initiatives of the European Commission (PHOENIX and SAFE-n-MEDTECH Open Innovation Test Beds), representatives of a working party on mRNA vaccines at the European Directorate for the Quality of Medicines (EDQM) and members of international standardisation and pre-normative organisations (including CEN, ISO, ASTM, VAMAS). Two take-home message came out from the discussion. First, developing standard test methods and Reference Materials (RMs) for nanomedicines is a key priority for the European Commission and various stakeholders. Furthermore, there was a unanimous recognition of the need for a unified approach between standardisation committees, regulators and the nanomedicine community. At the USA, Canadian and European level, examples of success stories and of future initiative have been discussed. Future perspectives include the creation of a dedicated Working Group under CEN/TC 352 to consolidate efforts and develop a nanomedicine standardisation roadmap.

Blueprint for a self-sustained European Centre for service provision in safe and sustainable innovation for nanotechnology.

The coming years are expected to bring rapid changes in the nanotechnology regulatory landscape, with the establishment of a new framework for nano-risk governance, in silico approaches for characterisation and risk assessment of nanomaterials, and novel procedures for the early identification and management of nanomaterial risks. In this context, Safe(r)-by-Design (SbD) emerges as a powerful preventive approach to support the development of safe and sustainable (SSbD) nanotechnology-based products and processes throughout the life cycle. This paper summarises the work undertaken to develop a blueprint for the deployment and operation of a permanent European Centre of collaborating laboratories and research organisations supporting safe innovation in nanotechnologies. The proposed entity, referred to as "the Centre", will establish a 'one-stop shop' for nanosafety-related services and a central contact point for addressing stakeholder questions about nanosafety. Its operation will rely on significant business, legal and market knowledge, as well as other tools developed and acquired through the EU-funded EC4SafeNano project and subsequent ongoing activities. The proposed blueprint adopts a demand-driven service update scheme to allow the necessary vigilance and flexibility to identify opportunities and adjust its activities and services in the rapidly evolving regulatory and nano risk governance landscape. The proposed Centre will play a major role as a conduit to transfer scientific knowledge between the research and commercial laboratories or consultants able to provide high quality nanosafety services, and the end-users of such services (e.g., industry, SMEs, consultancy firms, and regulatory authorities). The Centre will harmonise service provision, and bring novel risk assessment and management approaches, e.g. in silico methodologies, closer to practice, notably through SbD/SSbD, and decisively support safe and sustainable innovation of industrial production in the nanotechnology industry according to the European Chemicals Strategy for Sustainability.

Air-Liquid Interface In Vitro Models for Respiratory Toxicology Research: Consensus Workshop and Recommendations.

In vitro air-liquid interface (ALI) cell culture models can potentially be used to assess inhalation toxicology endpoints and are usually considered, in terms of relevancy, between classic (i.e., submerged) in vitro models and animal-based models. In some situations that need to be clearly defined, ALI methods may represent a complement or an alternative option to in vivo experimentations or classic in vitro methods. However, it is clear that many different approaches exist and that only very limited validation studies have been carried out to date. This means comparison of data from different methods is difficult and available methods are currently not suitable for use in regulatory assessments. This is despite inhalation toxicology being a priority area for many governmental organizations. In this setting, a 1-day workshop on ALI in vitro models for respiratory toxicology research was organized in Paris in March 2016 to assess the situation and to discuss what might be possible in terms of validation studies. The workshop was attended by major parties in Europe and brought together more than 60 representatives from various academic, commercial, and regulatory organizations. Following plenary, oral, and poster presentations, an expert panel was convened to lead a discussion on possible approaches to validation studies for ALI inhalation models. A series of recommendations were made and the outcomes of the workshop are reported.