To promote the Safe and Healthy use of ‘Future and Emerging Technologies’ such as innovative carbon-based nanomaterials, the study of their interactions with blood immune cells is of fundamental importance for any translational medicine application, in particular, those requiring intravenous injection.

Current approaches have little addressed the impact of nanomaterials on the complex orchestra of immune cells. Some work performed with very few immune cell types has shed some light on the immune impact of a very limited number of nanomaterials, in particular carbon nanomaterials, compared at a time. However, no labs in Europe, USA or Asia were able to give a broad picture on the interaction of several immune cell populations with a wide variety of well-characterized nanomaterials. No research group has provided so far a harmonized cutting-edge method for a classification of nanomaterials based not only on their chemical and physical characteristics, but also on their immunological responses and immune properties. Indeed, a thorough evaluation of the immune system interaction with nanomaterials it is only possible by the adoption of new advanced tools allowing multiplex analysis of cell types, cell activation and soluble mediators. Despite graphene-based materials have recently attracted a great interest for biomedical applications, their immunological potential impact is a still missing picture.

Graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) are finite sized graphene materials with confined widths. In contrast to other carbon nanomaterials such as graphene oxide, GNRs via the bottom-up organic synthesis (developed by the supervisor Prof. Xinliang Feng) will provide key novel aspects: i) the perfect control of structure at the atomic level ensuring higher reproducibility; ii) the possible conjugation with polar PEG-side chains, allowing very stable dispersion in water [1]; iii) the tailoring with different molecules and drugs, opening fascinating perspectives in healthcare. All these advantages compared to other nanomaterials make them “gold” carbon tools for their development in a medical direction. However, although all these features pave the way for the pharmaceutical market uptake, no work has still addressed their potential immune impact.

[1] Chen L, .., Feng X, Müllen K. From nanographene and graphene nanoribbons to graphene sheets: chemical synthesis. Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2012