Nanotechnology to reduce experiments on animals

Here’s a cheerful note on which to end our week: Most of us would like to reduce the need for experimentation on animals, but the question has been how to do it without increasing risks to humans. Now nanotech is being considered as a possible route, in a new conference sponsored by IoN (there does not seem to be a webpage on this meeting alone, so see the full IoN meeting list) on May 28-29, 2008:

This Conference will focus on how the application of nanotechnology could potentially contribute to the development of accurate and high-performance alternatives to the use of animals in experiments. It will take a multidisciplinary approach to the question of developing alternatives, examining issues such as how nanotechnology can impact advanced biomaterials, the fields of pharmacodynamics and pharmacokinetics, scaffolds and other materials used in human tissue-engineered test models, and imaging and diagnostic aspects.

Most Nanodot readers won’t make it to this conference, but we’re probably all glad they’re holding it! —Christine