Welcome to the NANOCULTURE project newsletter
#1 DECEMBER 2020

NANOCULTURE
Risk assessment and mitigation of the presence of engineered NANOmaterials in Atlantic aquaCULTURE

NANOCULTURE aims to provide knowledge (and tools) on the presence and effects of the most-used nanoparticles (TiO₂ and Ag) in common Atlantic Area aquaculture products (turbot, mussels, seaweed); and will assess the human risk of exposure by oral intake of these products.

Previous events

Webinars
Nanoparticles in aquaculture: is it something to worry about?
Date: 13^th and 16^th October 2020

During October, the NANOCULTURE partners organized the first edition of the project Webinars. The event title was Nanoparticles in aquaculture: is it something to worry about? and was divided into one English speaking and one Spanish speaking sessions. Overall, the event had nearly 200 registrations in both online streaming sessions. The academic community (nearly 80 % of overall registrations) and a range of professionals from several areas, including aquaculture private companies and policy institutions virtually attended the event. Attendants from 13 countries took part in the English session, while for the Spanish session attendants viewed the webinar from all over Spain and Portugal. The two main anticipated topics of the attendants were nanotechnology and toxicology.
The participation of invited speakers surely contributed for the high interest of the attendants. Dr. Catherine Butler from Ireland’s Seafood Development Agency (BIM) and Dr. Ángeles Vázquez from Conselleria del Mar – Xunta de Galicia (Galician Maritime Government) were the invited speakers for each the English and Spanish sessions, respectively.
The video recordings of the webinars are now available at the NANOCULTURE project website (http://nanoculture.ciimar.up.pt/) for those who missed it.

Conversas com Ciência
Meetings with Science
Date: 30^th August 2020 & 20^th September 2020

In August and September 2020, two members of the project NANOCULTURE, Dr. Alexandre Campos and Dr. Mário Araújo (CIIMAR), made presentations in “Meetings with Science”. These events started in January 2020 with CIIMAR Director Dr. Vitor Vasconcelos and have been taking place one Sunday month at the mill house of Fundação de Serralves. This is a partnership between CIIMAR and Fundação de Serralves.
The two CIIMAR researchers of NANOCULTURE explained about the origins, risk and consequences of anthropogenic pressures on aquatic environments. Dr. Alexandre Campos presented water quality, water shortage and climate change issues and also new contributions of Science to face these problems. Dr. M. Araújo talked about engineered nanoparticles, from its applications and uses and also their fate and environment, effects of their release on water quality and seafood contamination. These topics raised interesting discussions with the public that participated enthusiastically at the events.

NANOCULTURE partner – CIIMAR

In each NANOCULTURE newsletter, you will find a detailed presentation of one of the project partners. In this edition, the chosen partner is CIIMAR, the Interdisciplinary Centre of Marine and Environmental Research, a Portuguese leading research and advanced training institution of the University of Porto.

At the moment, CIIMAR is based at the award-winning building of the Leixões Cruise Terminal, in Matosinhos at the North of Portugal.
CIIMAR has three main Research Lines: Aquaculture and Seafood Quality, Global Changes and Ecosystems Services, and Marine Biotechnology and Biology. Its annual budget funding rises over 20 million euros, distributed over 100 projects.
The staff of 479 comes from more than 30 different countries, and over 200 are PhD holders. In recent years, the total number of scientific publications of CIIMAR researchers is over 500 annually and regarding advanced training, 100 masters and PhD theses have been completed. In addition, 13 international patents were submitted in 2019.

The research contribution of the CIIMAR team in the Nanoculture project is related to the detection of effects of nanoparticles in fish and bivalve mollusks. To this end, OMICs approaches are being used by the team, lead by Dr. Alexandre Campos. Proteomics and transcriptomics assess alterations in proteins or genes, contributing for understanding toxicity and organism defence mechanisms. The team is studying effects of nanoparticles in turbot and saltwater mussels. Interesting results will be available shortly!

NANOCULTURE website

The NANOCULTURE website is a great tool to keep informed about the project: http://nanoculture.ciimar.up.pt/.
Here, you will find the aims of the project and the main expected results. You will also find the presentation of the partner institutions and also the detailed presentation of the team members of the project. In the news and events section, all the relevant information of past and future events related to the project is constantly updated. In addition, you can find the contact details of the team and subscribe to the project newsletter.
In addition to the project website, you can also subscribe to Twitter and Linkedin project updates!

UPCOMING Events

Due to current COVID-19 pandemic situation, many conferences and events are being postponed or going partially or fully online. See below NANOCULTURE events and our suggestions and updates on main 2020/2021 events.

2^nd Edition – NANOCULTURE Webinars
French and Portuguese speaking sessions of the NANOCULTURE webinars will take place in 16^th and 18^th February 2021. We will welcome the participation of researchers from CIIMAR and INL that will include some early results of the project. The invited speakers will be announced shortly. Registrations and details will be provided firsthand at the NANOCULTURE website.

AQUACULTURE EUROPE 2020

Aquaculture Europe 2020 will take place online from April 12^th -15^th, 2021. The abstract submission are currently open. AE2020 ONLINE will feature an e-Market, where vendors and media partners will have a dedicated place online to present their products, link to their website and have a chat-box to interact with attendees and set up meetings. All presentations (oral videos and e-posters) and the e-Market will be available for a 30-day period after the event for attendees to see online.
Visit the AE2020 website: https://www.aquaeas.org/.

SETAC Europe  

The 31^st annual meeting organized by SETAC Europe will take place between 3^th and 6^th May 2021. This 4-day event will virtually gather scientists, regulators and business managers with the main theme “Global Challenges. An Emergency for Environmental Sciences”. You will be able to interact with speakers but also to record and watch talks and posters “on-demand” in this fully virtual conference. You can find more information at the event website: https://europe2021.setac.org/

SEAFOOD EXPO GLOBAL

SEAFOOD EXPO GLOBAL is the world’s largest seafood exposition. This yearly event gathers exhibitors and attendees from around the globe. The last edition, in 2019, hosted more than 29,000 seafood buyers and suppliers with over 2,000 exhibiting companies. The 29^th edition will take place on 7-9^th September 2021 in Barcelona, Spain. You can find more information at the event website: https://www.seafoodexpo.com/global/.