INDUSTRY
HEALTH
INTERVIEW
Nanotechnology is like the early
days of radioactivity when it
comes to knowing the risks – Dr
Vladimir Baulin
25 January 2017
by Ben Deighton
Vladimir Baulin has demonstrated how nanoparticles cross a lipid membrane and says we need to find out how exactly they affect living
organisms.
When radioactive materials were first introduced into society, it took a while before scientists
understood the risks. The same is true of nanotechnology today, according to Dr Vladimir
Baulin, from University Rovira i Virgili, in Tarragona, Spain, who together with colleagues has
shown for the first time how nanoparticles can cross biological - or lipid - membranes in a paper
published in the journal Science Advances.
The study resulted from the EU-funded SNAL project, which you coordinate. Can you explain
what you observed?
‘This is the first observation to show directly how tiny gold
nanoparticles can cross a lipid bilayer (main part of a biological
membrane). This process was quantified and the time of each
The Issue
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step was estimated. The lipid membrane is the ultimate barrier
protecting cells from the outside environment and if the
nanoparticles can cross this barrier they may go into cells.’
Nanotechnology is all around us, in
building materials, in toothpaste and
in cleaning products.
How was it possible to see the nanoparticle crossing the
lipid bilayer?
Across Europe, hundreds of
institutions are working together to
look at how to monitor exposure,
manage the risks and advise on
what regulations may be needed
under the EU’s NanoSafety Cluster.
‘Dr Jean-Baptiste Fleury (from Saarland University in Germany)
designed a special set-up with two chambers separated by a
lipid bilayer, which contained fluorescent lipids (fat molecules).
Non-fluorescent nanoparticles were added to only one of the
chambers. In this set-up, nanoparticles became visible only
For further details:
when they touched the fluorescent bilayer and exchanged lipids www.nanosafetycluster.eu
with it. If one sees the fluorescent nanoparticle in the second
chamber, this means it was in contact with the bilayer and it
crossed the bilayer from one chamber to another. This was the proof. In addition, the process of
translocation was quantified and the time of the crossing was estimated as milliseconds.’
Why are nanoparticles such a risk to our bodies?
‘All biological objects, biomolecules, proteins that exist in living organisms evolved over billions of
years to adapt to each other. Nanoparticles which are synthesised in the laboratory are thus considered
by a living organism as something foreign. It is a big challenge to make them compatible and not toxic.’
Nanoparticles have only been around for 30 years, is that right?
‘I would count the applications of nanoparticles as starting from the 1985 Nobel Prize for the discovery
of fullerenes (molecules of hollow football-shaped carbon). This was the start of the nanoparticle boom.’
How important is it that we understand the effect of nanoparticles on living organisms at the
moment?
‘This is becoming urgent because nanoparticles and nanotechnology in general are entering our lives.
Now it is possible to synthesise nanomaterials with precise control, fabricate nanostructures on
surfaces and do precise tailoring of the properties of nanoparticles.
‘It is becoming quite urgent to understand the exact mechanisms of nanotoxicity and make a
classification depending on the mechanism. Radioactivity or X-rays entered our lives the same way. It
took time until researchers understood the mechanisms of action on living organisms and the
regulations evolved with our understanding.’
How can this understanding be improved, and what is your concern with current empirical, or
observation-based, methods?
‘An empirical test of toxicity is that you put
nanoparticles into the cells and you see the cells
are dead, but you don’t understand what has
happened, this is empirical. This is a legitimate
tool, but it is not enough to address toxicity.
Instead, one could start from the properties of
nanoparticles and think about classifying nanoobjects based on their physical or chemical
properties by trying to predict the effect of a given
nanoparticle on a cell or tissue beforehand.
'This is the first
observation to show
directly how tiny gold
nanoparticles can
cross a lipid bilayer.'
‘I understand, it may look too ambitious, since there
Dr Vladimir Baulin,
are a lot of tiny details that are not considered at
University Rovira i Virgili,
the moment in theoretical models or any
Spain
classification. However, even if it may not be exact,
it can give some guidance and it would be possible
to make predictions on how nanoparticles and
polymers interact with lipid membranes. For
example, in this study we used theoretical modelling to suggest the size and surface properties of the
nanoparticle that is able to cross the lipid membrane through a certain pathway and it was observed
experimentally.’
What are you doing next in the project?
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‘We would like to start with such classification and develop a tool able to predict the structure of a
nanomaterial for a given function, for example, to cross or interact with lipid membranes more
efficiently.’
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Dr Vladimir Baulin
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