Measurements for mitigating adverse health effects from atmospheric particulate pollutants

Short Name: AeroTox, Project Number: 18HLT02

Applying advanced in-cell imaging and analysis methods to characterise particles linked to harmful health effects

Image of Los Angeles covered in a layer of smog

Coordinator: Konstantina Vasilatou (METAS)

Particulates have been linked to hundreds of thousands of premature deaths a year across the EU, contributing to respiratory problems and, perhaps, cardiovascular diseases, cancers and dementia. Currently, particulate matter (PM) is regulated by size concentrations labelled PM10 and PM2.5 (particles with diameter below 10 and 2.5 micrometres), but these metrics don’t consider chemical properties or, indeed, ultrafine particles. Other metrics may also be significant. New toxicology data is needed to establish causal links between particulate type and cell-level responses associated with damaging effects, which requires reference particulate aerosols, tailored to research needs.

 

The project has developed synthetic, tuneable, reference aerosols and novel test methods to evaluate cell-level effects, including applying machine learning for image-analysis; cell exposure methods that mimic particulate inhalation; and novel, more realistic lung models. The outcome will be PM metrics more closely aligned to health effects. The aim is to push the frontiers of cell optical analysis, improve air quality guidelines and encourage new measurement infrastructure.

 

Differential Cytotoxicity and Inflammatory Responses to Particulate Matter Components in Airway Structural Cells
2025

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Uncovering the cytotoxic effects of air pollution with multi-modal imaging of in vitro respiratory models
2023

Royal Society Open Science

The organic coating unit, an all-in-one system for reproducible generation of secondary organic matter aerosol
2022

AEROSOL SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY

A portable flow tube homogenizer for aerosol mixing in the sub-micrometre and lower micrometre particle size range
2022

Measurement Science and Technology

Role of Secondary Organic Matter on Soot Particle Toxicity in Reconstituted Human Bronchial Epithelia Exposed at the Air–Liquid Interface
2022

Environmental Science & Technology

A tunable physiomimetic stretch system evaluated with precision cut lung slices and recellularized human lung scaffolds
2022

Frontiers in Bioengineering and Biotechnology

Comparing black-carbon- and aerosol-absorption-measuring instruments – a new system using lab-generated soot coated with controlled amounts of secondary organic matter
2022

Atmospheric Measurement Techniques

Crosstalk between Mast Cells and Lung Fibroblasts Is Modified by Alveolar Extracellular Matrix and Influences Epithelial Migration
2021

International Journal of Molecular Sciences

Analyzing the surface of functional nanomaterials – how to quantify the total and derivatizable number of functional groups and ligands
2021

Microchimica Acta

Coated soot particles with tunable, well-controlled properties generated in the laboratory with a miniCAST BC and a micro smog chamber
2021

Journal of Aerosol Science

mmSIM: An open toolbox for accessible structured illumination microscopy
2021

Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A

Toxicological effects of zinc oxide nanoparticle exposure: an in vitro comparison between dry aerosol air-liquid interface and submerged exposure systems
2021

Nanotoxicology

Silver Nanoparticles Alter Cell Viability Ex Vivo and in Vitro and Induce Proinflammatory Effects in Human Lung Fibroblasts
2020

Nanomaterials

CFD simulation of an aerosol mixing chamber
2020

Homogeneity Measurements in an Aerosol Mixing Chamber
0

Silver Nanoparticles Alter Cell Viability Ex Vivo and in Vitro and Induce Proinflammatory Effects in Human Lung Fibroblasts
0

Crosstalk between Mast Cells and Lung Fibroblasts Is Modified by Alveolar Extracellular Matrix and Influences Epithelial Migration
0

OCU settings: aerosol characterisation campaign
0

A tunable physiomimetic stretch system evaluated with precision cut lung slices and recellularized human lung scaffolds
0

Datasets - Toxicological effects of zinc oxide nanoparticle exposure: an in vitro comparison between dry aerosol air-liquid interface and submerged exposure systems
0

Datasets-Coated soot particles with tunable, well-controlled properties generated in the laboratory with a miniCAST BC and a micro smog chamber
0

Comparing black-carbon- and aerosol-absorption-measuring instruments – a new system using lab-generated soot coated with controlled amounts of secondary organic matter
0

ctr26/MMSIM 1.4mmSIM: an open toolbox for accessible structured illumination microscopy
0

Participating EURAMET NMIs and DIs

BAM (Germany)

METAS (Switzerland)

MIKES-FMI (Finland)

NPL (United Kingdom)

Other Participants

Fachhochschule Nordwestschweiz (Switzerland)
Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine (United Kingdom)
King's College London (United Kingdom)
Lunds Universitet (Sweden)
Universitaet Bern (Switzerland)

Information

Programme
EMPIR
Field
Health
Status
completed
Call
2018
Duration
2019-2022
Project website
Link