The 2012 National Science and Technology Awards Conference was held on January 18, 2013 in the Great Hall of the People in 

Representing the team, Prof. Zhao Yuliang receives the certificate in the Great Hall of the People

 Beijing. The IHEP project of “Health Effects of Nanomaterials and Nanosafety Study” was accredited the Second-grade National Natural Science Award.

This project is a multidisciplinary research of bioinorganic chemistry, nanotoxicology and analytical chemistry. The project focused on understanding of the toxicity properties of nanomaterials and their health effects, as well as their relationships with physiochemical properties of nanomaterials, and development of analytical methodology for in vitro and in vivo toxicity studies.

In 2001, Prof. Zhao Yuliang from the Institute of High Energy Physics (IHEP) proposed a research plan on the biological effects and safety issues of engineered nanomaterials (NMs), and then initiated the nanosafety researches at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They are the earliest one in China and one of earliest teams in the world, who have pioneered and initiated the researches with innovative ideas on safety issues of engineered NMs. They systematically investigated toxicity properties and their health effects of engineered NMs of industrial scale production, including carbon nanomaterials, metals, and metal oxide nanomaterials, and so on.

They have accomplished researches of toxicological properties of twelve kinds of nanomaterials, at different biological levels from cells, tissue, organs to the whole body animals. The results systematically disclosed the ability of nanoparticles to cross the biological barrier and enter into the cells and the body. The interaction with organs, the transportation rate in vivo, metabolism pathway, pharmacokinetics and toxicity of various NMs were extensively studied. They have revealed some new knowledge beyond the classic toxicology of bulk materials.