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exposure. Using a high-throughput screening assay (performed by robotic equipment and an automa- ted image-capture microscope), they tested the two dozen materials on a variety of cell types in a matter of a few hours and found that six of them – those that had previously met the researchers‘ predictive criteria for being toxic based on their band-gap energy – led to oxidative damage in cells.

“Being able to integrate metal-oxide electronic properties into a predictive and high-throughput sci- entific platform in this work could play an important role in advancing nanomaterial safety testing in the 21st century to a preventative strategy, rather than waiting for problems to emerge,” Nel said.

Haiyuan Zhang, Zhaoxia Ji, Tian Xia, Huan Meng, Ce- cile Low-Kam, Rong Liu, Suman Pokhrel, Sijie Lin, Xi- ang Wang, Yu-Pei Liao, Meiying Wang, Linjiang Li, Ro- bert Rallo, Robert Damoiseaux, Donatello Telesca, Lutz Mädler, Yoram Cohen: Use of Metal Oxide Nanoparticle Band Gap To Develop a Predictive Paradigm for Oxida- tive Stress and Acute Pulmonary Inflammation, In: ACS Nano ASAP, April 15, 2012, DOI: 10.1021/nn3010087: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/nn3010087

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particles and nanostructures,” said Simon Billinge, a researcher at both Brookhaven and Columbia University’s School of Engineering and Applied Science and a long-term user of the NSLS, who led the research.

A. M. Milinda Abeykoon, Christos D. Malliakas, Pavol Juhás, Emil S. Bozin, Mercouri G. Kanatzidis und Si- mon J. L. Billinge: Quantitative nanostructure characte- rization using atomic pair distribution functions obtained from laboratory electron microscopes, In: Zeitschrift fuer Kristallographie, Vol. 227, No. 5, May 2012 [Analysis of Complex Materials], Pages 248-256, DOI:10.1524/ zkri.2012.1510:

http://dx.doi.org/10.1524/zkri.2012.1510

Researchers at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST, US) have developed a prototype bioreactor – a device for culturing cells to create engineered tissues – that both stimulates and evaluates tissue as it grows, mimicking natural processes while eliminating the need to stop perio- dically to cut up samples for analysis. Tissue created this way might someday be used to replace, for example, damaged or diseased cartilage in the knee and hip.

Researchers describe a TEM-based data-collection technique and computer-modeling analyses used to extract quantitative nanostructural information in a paper just published in the May 2012 issue of the journal Zeitschrift fuer Kristallographie. “The ability to collect PDF data using an electron mi- croscope places this powerful nanocrystallographic analysis method into the hands of scientists who need it most – the people synthesizing novel nano-

Jenni R. Popp, Justine J. Roberts, Doug V. Gallagher, Kristi S. Anseth, Stephanie J. Bryant, and Timothy P. Quinn: An instrumented bioreactor for mechanical sti- mulation and real-time, nondestructive evaluation of en- gineered cartilage tissue, In: Journal of Medical Devices, Vol. 6, Issue 2, June 2012, Article 021006 [7 pages], DOI:10.1115/1.4006546: http://dx.doi.org/10.1115/1.4006546