Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU)

NILU is an independent research foundation. It is one of the leading European institutes in environmental research and has several national roles related to aspects of environmental pollution. The institution gives expertise in ISO/CEN committees in Nanotechnology and has members on the ISO Committees for Standards Norway. The laboratories for inorganic and organic analysis are accredited according to EN/ISO/IEC 17025. Health Effects Lab is under accreditation for GLP in in vitro toxicology. NILU’s laboratories for organic trace element analysis in environmental samples are today the largest trace element analytical chemistry laboratories in Norway. The institute conducts approximately 250 projects every year for government, industry and national and international organizations and is successful in obtaining scientific grants; coordinating and is participating in many ongoing EU-funded projects.
 
Competence: NILU has broad expertise in exposure assessment and in human toxicology. The Health effects laboratory is consolidating molecular biology and tissue culture techniques. Research focuses on development of molecular and cellular markers and endpoints of cytotoxicity, oxidative stress, inflammation, genotoxicity, neurotoxicity and carcinogenicity. The Laboratory is following GLP principles and is under inspection for OECD-GLP certification by Norsk Akreditering.  The main focus is on development of testing strategy for nanomaterial testing and on development of in vitro tests for cytotoxicity, oxidative stress and genotoxicity.

Infrastructure: The Health Effects Laboratory comprises of Biochemistry, Molecular toxicology and Cell Culture laboratories with standard facilities such as a laminar flow cabinet, CO₂ thermostats, several centrifuges, light microscopes, NANOSIGHT, fluorescence microscopes (LEICA, OLYMPUS, ZEISS), two semi-automated image analysis  systems Perceptive and METASYSTEM, confocal microscope LCM700 with cell culture chamber and CO₂, electrophoresis, PCR, RT-PCR,  ELISA plate reader, liquid nitrogen, deep freezers and other facilities. The group has access to electron microscopy, and to Environmental Scanning Electron microscope technology (FEG-ESEM) and at NILU chemistry lab to (GC/HRMS, HPLC/HRMS-TOF, HPLC/HR-ICP-MS, TOA-TOT).