Report on attending the Beilstein Nanotechnology Symposium 2024

From September 3-5, 2024 the NanoBubbles members Nathanne Rost, Mustafa Gharib and Wytske Hepkema attended the Beilstein Nanotechnology Symposium, in Rüdesheim, Germany. The next generation of nanomedicine: from formulations to precision therapies was the main topic debated in the talks and poster sessions. The poster presenters had the chance of introducing their work on a flash talk of 3 minutes. This symposium was attended by people from academia and industry and it was a venue to exchange with scientists from several institutions, and different levels of seniority; a space to learn, exchange and listening from experts about their results, also various points of view.

Among the questions that arose were the interaction of nanoparticles with biological systems, fate of nanomaterials in cells, ability to cross biological barriers, and strategies to overcome the limitations of nanomedicine. More specifically, the promises of nanotechnology in medicine discussed during this event included, but were not limited to, the use of lipid nanoparticles for delivering mRNA (as the technology applied for developing COVID-19 vaccines), brain-targeted liposomes for treating diseases (e.g., Parkinson), investigation on the tumour microenvironment and challenges on clinical translation.

Nathanne Rost presented the poster Nanotechnology in medicine: promises of intracellular use vs precise localisation of nanomaterials, co-authored by Federico Boem, Maha Said, Mustafa Gharib and Raphaël Lévy, as part of the post-publication peer review (PPPR) initiative. The aim was to describe the approach of selecting, critically analyse, and post the reviews about articles claiming the intracellular localisation of nanoparticles, or the ability of nanomaterials in crossing  the blood-brain barrier, bring the attention of the audience to some issues encountered in the scientific literature and show that engaging in PPPR can be a daily task of every scientist (for example, by posting a comment on PubPeer when detecting flaws in articles).

Mustafa Gharib detailed in the poster “Cytosolic’’ Nanoprobes? First Replication Initiative in Nanobioscience, co-authored by Maha Said and Raphaël Lévy, the replication project.

“Unlike other conferences and meetings that I have been to, almost all the talks mentioned the importance and were well aware of the endosomal escape of nanoparticles. Nevertheless, a little has been discussed about the evaluation of how efficient the nanosystems are to escape the endosomes, or how much of the nanoparticles in cytosol would be enough to elicit an intracellular effect. One of the keynote lectures was a lecture given by Prof. Kenneth Dawson (University College Dublin, Ireland) who showed that there are still some challenges for the nanomedicine to reach the market. One of which was escaping the endolysosomal compartment. On the other side, some lectures were given on other routes of delivery of nanomedicine to overcome major delivery hurdles that include endosomal escape. One of which was a lecture given by Prof. Stefaan de Smedt (University of Ghent, Belgium) who described an efficient intravitreal injection to deliver nanomedicine to the eyes to treat eye floaters. More ironically, this way of treatment is called “Nanobubbles” laser ablation for improving localized drug delivery.”

Wytske Hepkema attended the symposium to learn more about current discussions in nanomedicine. Specifically what kind of evidence is presented in talks on intracellular nanoparticles, and what kind of questions are asked.

The symposium was an excellent occasion to expand our overview on the three bubbles considered in the NanoBubbles project: the protein corona, the localisation of nanoparticles in the cytosol and their ability to cross the blood-brain barrier. It was invaluable to hear from experts in the nanobiosciences field about the challenges of nanomedicine and also to explore more about how the claims spread through the scientific community.

You can read more about the event by clicking on #BeilsteinNanomedicine2024.