Keynote Lectures

Understanding the interactions of nanomaterials and other advanced materials with the immune system is of paramount importance for the safe and sustainable development and use of these materials. Here, we will discuss studies of conventional nanomaterials such as SiO₂ and TiO₂ along with emerging two-dimensional (2D) materials including graphene-based materials and transition metal carbides and nitrides (collectively known as MXenes) with respect to their (reciprocal) interactions with cells of the innate immune system. We will discuss the activation of inflammasomes, cytosolic receptors that play a key role in sensing immunological ‘danger’. Specially, how nanomaterials evoke sterile inflammation with the secretion of pro-inflammatory mediators such as interleukin (IL)-1β. We will also address the degradability of nanomaterials and other advanced materials and the implications for the hazard assessment of such materials. Finally, we will discuss recent studies on the interplay between engineered nanomaterials, the immune system, and the microbiota, our ‘forgotten organ’ consisting of bacteria and other microorganisms that dwell in and on the human body. Overall, we seek to highlight whether nanomaterials and other advanced materials evoke novel immunotoxicological effects or whether the observed effects are ancient and conserved and, therefore, in principal, predictable.