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John Breskey

Graduate Student
EMAIL:jbresk2@uic.edu

BA Biology, Oberlin College, 2002
Ph.D. Candidate, Industrial Hygiene, University of Illinois at Chicago

There have been great advances in the nanotechnology fields over the past decade and this emerging discipline has been offered as the next industrial revolution.  Although nanotechnology applications are expected to continue making positive impacts in various engineering and medical applications, these technologies may adversely affect humans and the environment in ways that may not be apparent at the present time.

Identifying exposures of engineered nanomaterials is difficult due to lack of techniques or instrumentation that can accurately quantify or characterize released nanomaterials. The interaction of engineered nanoparticles, either with themselves or with other chemical species or substrates, complicates the matter even further as subtle differences in chemistry or structure can have significant differences in behavior.  Without proper identification methodology and rigorous nanomaterials characterization, it will be near-impossible to interpret toxicity studies, compare similar studies and develop predictive models of nanomaterial hazards.

The primary approach to my research is to identify commercially available nanomaterials that have already been shown to exist within consumer products.  We will then release these types of particles into our laboratory-based exposure systems by means of usual process methods or in simulation of emissions that may occur during normal handling and use.  Once released, we can then apply a range of sampling techniques and characterization methods and determine which of those are most practical or relevant.  Finally, we can calculate different emission factors for the nanoparticles depending on the release process methods and parameters that we can control within the experimental system.  It is this information that will ultimately fill gaps on potential exposures and relevant toxicity doses in assessing the risk of engineered nanomaterials.