PhD Conferral Mrs.drs. Christina Giannakou

Keywords: nanomedicinal products, safety evaluation, immune system, integrated strategy

“Nanomedicinal products: An integrated approach for immunotoxicity testing”

Nanomedicinal products are used among others for cancer treatment. Like all pharmaceuticals, their safety is carefully evaluated before they are allowed to enter the market. Since nanomedicinal products will most likely be picked up by the immune system, it is important that state-of-the-art safety evaluation of these products occurs in relation to the immune system. This thesis develops an integrated strategy to assess the potential toxicity of nanomedicinal products to the immune system. Basic characteristics of this strategy include introduction of non-animal testing methods, nanospecific parameters and an integrated approach. This strategy provides a flexible and intelligent way of immunotoxicity evaluation of nanomedicines.