I have visited the National Institute for Environmental Studies in Tsukuba (Japan) for 3 months (16.09.2014 – 15.12.2014). My work was related to the Work Package 3 Development of novel structural descriptors for nanoparticles. The aim of the research secondment was to indicate the interactions between the small sized zinc oxide nanoparticles and various proteins.
During the stay in Tsukuba in order to achieve the objective of the research was performed the following steps: the parameterization of the zinc oxide particle in the AMBER force field; modeling the small-sized zinc oxide nanoparticles on the structure of the wurtzite; modeling the systems of the proteins and the nanoparticles; performing the molecular dynamics of the systems (contains one of the proteins and one of the zinc oxide nanoparticles) in water in the AMBER force field using the AMBER software package (approx. 200ns); performing the molecular dynamics of the proteins in water in the AMBER force field using the AMBER software package (approx. 200ns); the investigation of the interactions. czytaj dalej
I came to the Interdisciplinary Center for Nanotoxicity, Jackson State University for three months (Sep 15th –Dec 15th 2014) to perform research within the WP 2 – “Carrying out experiments to produce necessary (missing) data for nanoparticles.”
My main scientific interest has been focused on carbon nanotubes’ (CNT) interactions with proteins, with particular regard to the effect on CNT dispersibility. This property is considered an important factor in potential CNT toxicity. During my work I developed a large library of CNT (27 various items), characterized their morphological properties with the use of transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and identified their chemical functionalization by means of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR). Next, I investigated the stability of CNT dispersions in water and model protein solution (bovine serum albumin, BSA) by means of UV-VIS spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS) and zeta-potential measurement. Additionally, all CNT were investigated for their hydrophobicity index based on octanol/water partitioning. czytaj dalej
This visit has been conducted within BRIDGE I: Collaboration between developers of computational and empirical methods for risk assessment.
During a series of meetings and personal discussions we have exchanged information on the progress in the development of computational and experimental methods within NanoBRIDGES project.
We have discussed further plans related to joint collaboration (after the termination of NanoBRIDGES project) and the requirements related to the experiments to ensure that data produced by the experimental team would be useful to develop computational (Nano-read across) models.
By visiting laboratories in the center we extended our knowledge on the origin of the data, i.e., how the data are produced step-by-step and what eventual problems originating from the experiments that have a potential impact on the computations would be. czytaj dalej
I have visited Jackson State University, Jackson, Mississippi, USA for 4 months (from 11 of July to 14 of November 2014). The secondment was conducted within Work Package 2: Carrying out experiments to produce necessary (missing) data for nanoparticles.
My research focused on the removal properties of titanium oxide doped by sulfur and conjugated with appetites (hydroxyapatite and fluorapatite): materials preparation, characterization and study of metal adsorption and chemical pollutants degradation. The analyzed materials seem to be good solution who combine the properties of both type of particles HAP/FAP capable to adsorption the metal ions from the water solution and TiO2/TiO2:S having the great photocatalytic activities. The second aim of my research was collecting the experimental data for selected different types of Carbon Nanotubes to prepare exact characteristics and development useful descriptors for future research activity. During the visit I was have also interesting QSAR method training. czytaj dalej
I have visited Jackson State University (USA) between 18 of June to 17 of August. I was working within Work Package 3 Development of novel structural descriptors for nanoparticles. However the work in Dr Leszczynski Group from the Interdisciplinary Center of Nanotoxicity was so fruitful for my research career that I used the opportunity to extend my visit at JSU to 5 months.
Thanks to cooperation with Dr Leszczynski and his team I greatly expanded my knowledge about the Density Functional Theory modeling. With their help I learned how to design proper models in perspective of their expected purpose. I also learned how to used computational methods to calculate physical chemical properties of solid states, especially of TiO2(anatase) supported Au8 clusters. czytaj dalej
