Nanoscience is a rapidly developing scientific discipline that enables researchers to manipulate and characterize matter at the level of single atoms and small groups of atoms. It integrates cellular and molecular components with engineered materials to produce nanoscale objects that have wide-ranging potential for applications in science and engineering from molecular biology to the physical sciences. For the health community, nanotechnology may aid in drug delivery, provide noninvasive imagining, and the development of new diagnosistic tests.

What nanotechnology will mean for environmental health scientists is an area of on-going discussion. This one-day workshop sponsored by the Institute of Medicine’s Roundtable on Environmental Health Sciences, Research, and Medicine will examine the issues of nanotechnology from a public health perspective. The discussion will illuminate the potential health benefits and advances in technologies, while also discussing recent toxicological concerns. 

A summary of this workshop was released in March 2005.

 If you have any questions regarding this meeting, please contact Dalia Gilbert at dgilbert@nas.edu.