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Duke lands $14.4M to launch nanotechnology research center

Silica nanoparticles bind to bacteria in a CEIN image from California NanoSystems Institute at UCLA.

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• National Science Foundation
• Environmental Protection Agency
• National Nanotechnology Initiative
• Pratt School of Engineering
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Duke University and UCLA will be the homes for two federally funded centers for research into the environmental implications of nanotechnology.

Duke will receive $14.4 million from the National Science Foundation and the Environmental Protection Agency for creation of the Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnology, or CEINT.

A similar center will be launched at UCLA.

“The new centers will provide national and international leadership in the emerging field of environmental nanoscience," said Arden Bement, Jr., the director of the NSF. "This is an important addition to the National Nanotechnology Initiative, and builds on discoveries about the environmental implications of nanotechnology made since 2001," when NSF established its Center for Biological and Environmental Nanotechnology, Bement said.

"The new centers are aimed at strengthening our nation's commitment to research on the environmental, health and safety implications of nanomaterials," the director said.

Researchers will study the relationship between natural, manmade, incidental and byproduct nanoparticles. The environmental impact is largely unknown.

One of the first projects will be a study of the ecosystem at Duke Forest in Durham. Nanoparticles will be introduced into 32 so-called mesocosms, or living laboratories, so interaction with plants, fish, bacteria and other elements can be studied.

“A distinctive element of the CEINT will be the synthesis of information about nanoparticles into a rigorous risk-assessment framework, the results of which will be transferred to policy-makers and society at large,” said Mark Wiesner, who will serve as the CEINT director at Duke. Weisner also is a professor in civil and environmental engineering at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering.

“This mesocosm facility will be the nano-environment equivalent of the space station — a unique resource with tremendous potential that will be tapped by researchers throughout the center and beyond,” said Wiesner.

The Duke CEINT also will include researchers from N.C. State University, according to Duke.

Also part of the Duke center will be researchers from Carnegie Mellon, Howard University, Stanford, the University of Kentucky and Virginia Tech.

Duke professor Rich Di Giuliom an ecotoxicologist, is one of the co-principal investigators for the center.