Symposium on Nanotechnology in Food Past, Present and Future 18 November LT33

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1 National University of Singapore Academy for GxP Excellence (NUSAGE), Food Science & Technology Programme (FST) and Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) Are jointly organizing a Symposium on Nanotechnology in Food Past, Present and Future 18 November 2013@NUS LT33 Programme Registration and Morning Tea Welcome Address Associate Professor Chui Wai Keung, Head of Department, NUS Pharmacy Plenary Speaker Nanotechnology and the Human Body; Risks and Benefits Professor David Williams, Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine and Visiting Professor, Department of Pharmacy, NUS Faculty Speaker Application of Nanotechnology in Food Safety: Detection and Prevention of Foodborne Pathogens Dr. Hyun-Gyun Yuk, Assistant Professor, Food Science & Technology Programme, NUS Faculty Speaker Nanomaterials in food products: the current paradigms Dr. Wang Zhengming, Deputy Director (Molecular Biology), AVA Dr. David Leong, Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, NUS Panel Discussion Lunch & Networking

2 Plenary Speaker Professor David Williams Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine and Visiting Professor, Department of Pharmacy, NUS Nanotechnology and the Human Body; Risks and Benefits Nanostructured materials, including nanoparticles, are not new. They are ubiquitous in nature, and are often produced in vast quantities by natural phenomena such as fires and volcanic eruptions. The defensive mechanisms of the human body are sufficiently well refined to deal with, and prevent harm from, such materials. This situation has the potential to change when those nanostructured materials are specifically, or accidentally, engineered to take forms that can evade the natural defensive processes. Nanostructured by-products of diesel combustion provide one type of example of accidentally engineered nanoparticles. Many recent advances in nanoscience and nanotechnology have, however, attempted to introduce features that deliberately target anatomical features or physiological processes in order for the particles to perform specific functions within the human body. Examples include nanoparticulate gene vectors that can carry DNA into a cell nucleus in gene therapy or transfer, and functionalized superparamagnetic oxide nanoparticles that can be targeted to specific biological entities to allow for highly enhanced magnetic resonance imaging. Whilst such theoretical benefits can easily be envisaged, the power for such nanoparticles to do harm by undesirable translocation within the body and by the inappropriate targeting to cells that have consequential toxicological outcomes, can never be underestimated. This lecture will cover some of the fundamental mechanisms by which nanostructured materials interact with the human body, and the risk-benefit analyses that have to be undertaken when such engineering practices are introduced. Biography Professor David Williams was educated as a metallurgist/materials scientist at the University of Birmingham (UK). He received a First Class Honours Bachelor of Science degree in 1965 and a Ph.D. in He was awarded the degree of Doctor of Science, the highest academic degree in the UK, in From 1968 to 2007 he was on the Faculty of the School of Medicine at the University of Liverpool, UK. In 1984 he was awarded the title of a Personal Chair, the youngest person in the history of the University to be awarded this title at that time. He ultimately became Head of the Department of Clinical Engineering, Director of the UK Centre for Tissue Engineering and Honorary Consultant Scientist of the Royal Liverpool Hospitals. From 1997 to 2000 he was Senior Pro-Vice Chancellor. During his academic career, Dr Williams has written/edited over 30 books and close to 400 scientific papers. His book Implants in Surgery, published in 1973 was the first text book in the area of biomaterials science and implantable devices. He has published the landmark Williams Dictionary of Biomaterials and his latest textbook Essential Biomaterials Science will be published by Cambridge University Press in He has received the major awards from the UK, US, European and Indian societies of biomaterials. He received the prestigious Founders Award of the US Society for Biomaterials in 2007, the first non- American citizen to receive this award. In 1999 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering of the UK, in recognition of his contributions to engineering in medicine. He is one of the very few foreign members of the American Institute of Medical and Biological Engineering. Professor Williams has been a scientific adviser to the European Commission for many years and has written many Opinions on which European laws in health technology and nanotechnology are based. He has appeared widely in UK, European, Australian and US courts as an expert witness in cases of patent

3 infringement and product liability with respect to medical technology. Many of the major issues of litigation on medical devices have been resolved with the help of his scientific advice and opinions. He has also held positions on scientific and medical advisory boards of biomaterials and medical device companies, both in the UK and the USA. He has advised many companies on issues of biomaterials selection and testing procedures. He has advised governments of many countries on matters of research policy and has written reports for the British Government of new developments and commercialization strategies in areas of medical technology and regenerative medicine. Professor Williams is the Editor-in-Chief of Biomaterials, the world s leading journal in this field. His journal is now considered to be in the top 2% of the world s scientific and medical journals. Increasingly, Dr Williams has involved himself in global healthcare initiatives. He has visited and lectured in many Asian countries, including Japan, China, Korea, India, Nepal, Taiwan and Singapore. In 2009 he was elected President-elect of the Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society. Professor Williams left the University of Liverpool, UK, in While retaining the title of Emeritus Professor at Liverpool, he is currently Professor and Director of International Affairs, Wake Forest Institute of Regenerative Medicine, North Carolina, USA. He is coordinating international collaborations involving this institute with other major laboratories and also developing programs to take new medical technologies to developing countries. In addition, he is a Visiting Professor in the Department of Pharmacy, National University of Singapore, Christiaan Barnard Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, Cape Town, South Africa, a Visiting Professorial Fellow at the Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, University of New South Wales, Australia, Chair Professor of Biomedical Materials, Taipei Medical University, Taiwan, and a Guest Professor, at Tsinghua University, Beijing, and Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. Faculty Speakers Dr. Hyun-Gyun Yuk Assistant Professor, Food Science & Technology Programme, NUS Application of Nanotechnology in Food Safety: Detection and Prevention of Foodborne Pathogens The presence of pathogens and spoilage microorganisms in foods is an important factor that undermines the safety and quality of foods. Nanotechnology is an emerging technology that shows great potential as an effective tool for the detection and prevention of these microorganisms in foods, thus serving as a measure to enhance food safety and quality. Nanotechnology refers to the study of materials in the nanometer range and so, the use of such nanomaterials is able to bring about related advantages with unique electrical, luminescent, magnetic, catalytic properties and their large surface-volume ratio. In particular, nanoparticles including quantum dots, gold and polymeric nanoparticles are very versatile and have great potential to rapidly diagnose foodborne pathogens in food samples. Nanoencapsulation of antimicrobial agents increase the stability of compounds and effectiveness in microbial prevention. These antimicrobial compounds are incorporated into packaging materials as metallic and metal oxide nanoparticles. This presentation aims to provide a summary of the ways in which nanotechnology can be used to detect microorganisms as well as prevent their growth in foods.

4 Biography Dr. Yuk earned his Ph.D. degree majoring in food microbiology and safety from the Department of Food Science and Technology at Mississippi State University, USA in He had postdoctoral experience at the University of Florida from 2004 to He worked as a Research Food Technologist at the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) from 2007 to He is now an Assistant Professor in the Food Science and Technology Programme at the National University of Singapore. As a professional food microbiologist, his expertise is specifically in areas of developing food preservation technology and rapid detection method. Dr Wang Zhengming Deputy Director (Molecular Biology) Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) Dr David Leong Assistant Professor, Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, NUS Nanomaterials in food products: the current paradigms Part one by Dr Wang Zhengming, AVA Recent advances in nanotechnology have increased the use of engineered nanoparticles in consumer products. Food products incorporating nanotechnology include nanoscale fertilizers, pesticides, food additives, enzymes, flavourings, and food packaging materials. Nanotechnology has an impact on every aspect of the food supply chain, from how food is cultivated, produced, processed and packaged. Meanwhile, there are significant knowledge gaps remaining in the area of nanomaterials and their application in food. For examples, nanoparticles are likely interacted in a dynamic fashion with other food substances, and such effects and interactions need to be characterized. These will impact the implementation of the relevant regulatory measures such as risk assessment, safety monitoring, labeling and detection. These are the challenges faced by regulatory agencies globally.

5 Part two by Dr David Leong, NUS Nanotechnology has always been part of human history since the middle ages. What has evolved is now our intentional ability to engineer nanoparticles of more precise shapes, sizes and more importantly properties to fulfill a specific purpose. Food products are not spared from this nanotechnology revolution. The voice asking for greater understanding and tighter regulation grows as more nanomaterials are creeping into products which would have high penetration amongst the human population. This talk part of the talk will cover some concepts of nanoparticles in food, current state of the art risk assessment regimes used in nanotoxicology research and certain scientific challenges and questions surrounding nanoparticles in food. Biography Dr Wang Zheng Ming received his PhD training in molecular biology and mammalian genetics from Melbourne University in He joined AVA in 2005 and currently works at Veterinary Public Health Laboratory. Before joining AVA, Zheng Ming was a research scientist in IMCB ( ) and NUS ( ). In IMCB, his research interests were using in vivo biological system (transgenic animal model) to analyze signal transduction pathway. During his NUS time, he focused on regenerative medicine and stem cell biology research. Zheng Ming s current research interests include advanced biological technologies in food analysis, and food nanotechnology. Dr David Leong is one of the few engineers working on understanding the interactions of nanoparticle with biological systems and developing new tools to test nanoparticles in a high throughput and more in vivolike scenarios. He has expertise in synthesis and modifications of nanoparticles with the intention of understanding how surface chemistry affects those interactions. Overall, learning from those understanding, he aims to re-design nanoparticles to be safer with engineered translations into novel applications. Research work from his team has been published in top journals like Nature Communications, NPG Asia Materials, Biomaterials and Small. Please click on this Registration Link to bring you to the registration page.