Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Correspondence
  • Published:

On the issue of transparency and reproducibility in nanomedicine

Nature Nanotechnology volume 14, pages 629–635 (2019)Cite this article

A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 29 July 2019

A Publisher Correction to this article was published on 09 July 2019

This article has been updated

Following our call to join in the discussion over the suitability of implementing a reporting checklist for bio–nano papers, the community responds.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Change history

  • 29 July 2019

    An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

  • 09 July 2019

    An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper

References

  1. Wilhelm, S. et al. Nat. Rev. Mater. 1, 16014 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Leong, H. S. et al. Nat. Protoc. 5, 1406–1417 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Townson, J. L. et al. J. Am. Chem. Soc. 135, 16030–16033 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Dogra, P. et al. Nat. Commun. 9, 4551 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Cho, C.-F., Ablack, A., Leong, H.-S., Zijlstra, A. & Lewis, J. J. Vis. Exp. https://doi.org/10.3791/2808 (2011).

  6. Durfee, P. N. et al. ACS Nano 10, 8325–8345 (2016).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. FDA’s Approach to Regulation of Nanotechnology Products (FDA, 2018); https://www.fda.gov/scienceresearch/specialtopics/nanotechnology/ucm301114.htm

  8. Swierczewska, M., Crist, R. M. & McNeil, S. E. Methods Mol. Biol. 1682, 3–16 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Crist, R. M. et al. Integr. Biol. 5, 66–73 (2013).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Gioria, S. et al. Nanomedicine https://doi.org/10.2217/nnm-2017-0338 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Caputo, F. et al. J. Control. Release 299, 31–43 (2019).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  12. Prina-Mello, A. in Handbook of Nanomaterials for Cancer Theranostics (ed. Conde, J.) Ch. 17 (Elsevier, 2018).

  13. Adiseshaiah, P. P. & Stern, S. T. Methods Mol. Biol. 1682, 241–253 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  14. Nat. Nanotechnol. 13, 765 (2018).

  15. Faria, M. et al. Nat. Nanotechnol. 13, 777–785 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  16. Bouwmeester, H. et al. Nanotoxicology 5, 1–11 (2011).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  17. Nat. Nanotechnol. 7, 545 (2012).

  18. Pettitt, M. E. & Lead, J. R. Environ. Int. 52, 41–50 (2013).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  19. Nat. Nanotechnol. 8, 69 (2013).

  20. Schrurs, F. & Lison, D. Nat. Nanotechnol. 7, 546–548 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  21. Nel, A. E. et al. ACS Nano 9, 5627–5630 (2015).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  22. Zhang, H. et al. ACS Nano 6, 4349–4368 (2012).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  23. Li, R. et al. ACS Nano 8, 1771–1783 (2014).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  24. Li, R. et al. ACS Nano 12, 1390–1402 (2018).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  25. Liu, X. et al. J. Clin. Invest. 127, 2007–2018 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  26. “Definitions in Biomaterials” Conference Attracts World Experts to Chengdu, China (Society for Biomaterials, 7 January 2018); https://www.biomaterials.org/sites/default/files/docs/2018/biomaterials_definitions_conference_press_release.pdf

  27. Clotilde, T. et al. J. Extracell. Vesicles 7, 1535750 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  28. EV-TRACK Consortium. Nat. Methods 14, 228–232 (2017).

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

Kimberly S. Butler, Hon S. Leong and C. Jeffrey Brinker: Sandia National Laboratories is a multi-mission laboratory managed and operated by National Technology and Engineering Solutions of Sandia, LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Honeywell International, Inc., for the US Department of Energy’s National Nuclear Security Administration under contract DENA0003525. Any subjective views or opinions that might be expressed in the paper do not necessarily represent the views of the US Department of Energy or the US government.

Adriele Prina-Mello, Ruth Schmid, Peter Wick, Fanny Caputo, Patrick Boisseau, Rachael M. Crist and Scott E. McNeil: the view expressed in this Correspondence is reflective of the European Nanomedicine Characterisation Laboratory (EUNCL EC-H2020 ref. 654190) and the REFINE consortium (REFINE EC-H2020 ref. 761104). The work of authors Rachael M. Crist and Scott E. McNeil has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, under contract no. HHSN261200800001E. The content of this publication does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the Department of Health and Human Services, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products or organizations imply endorsement by the US government.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Urology, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Hon S. Leong

  2. Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN, USA

    Hon S. Leong

  3. Department of Nanobiology, Sandia National Laboratories, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    Kimberly S. Butler

  4. Center for Micro-Engineered Materials, University of New Mexico Albuquerque, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    C. Jeffrey Brinker

  5. Departments of Chemical and Biological Engineering, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    C. Jeffrey Brinker

  6. Department of Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    C. Jeffrey Brinker

  7. UNM Comprehensive Cancer Center, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, USA

    C. Jeffrey Brinker

  8. Cardiovascular Research Group, School of Healthcare Science, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester, UK

    May Azzawi

  9. British Society for Nanomedicine https://www.britishsocietynanomedicine.org

    May Azzawi, Steve Conlan, Christine Dufés, Andrew Owen, Steve Rannard & Chris Scott

  10. Institute of Life Science, Swansea University Medical School, Swansea University, Swansea, UK

    Steve Conlan

  11. Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

    Christine Dufés

  12. Department of Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, Institute of Translational Medicine, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Andrew Owen

  13. Department of Chemistry, School of Physical Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK

    Steve Rannard

  14. Centre for Cancer Research and Cell Biology, Queen’s University of Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Chris Scott

  15. National Center for Nanoscience and Technology of China, Beijing, China

    Chunying Chen

  16. Cancer Research Technology Program, Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, USA

    Marina A. Dobrovolskaia

  17. Laboratory of Animal Sciences Program, Center for Advanced Preclinical Research, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, USA

    Marina A. Dobrovolskaia & Serguei V. Kozlov

  18. Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, Department of Clinical Medicine, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Adriele Prina-Mello

  19. Laboratory for Biological Characterisation of Advanced Materials, Trinity Translational Medicine Institute, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Adriele Prina-Mello

  20. Nanomedicine Group, Advanced Materials and Bioengineering Research (AMBER) centre, Centre for Research on Adaptive Nanostructures and Nanodevices, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland

    Adriele Prina-Mello

  21. SINTEF Industry, Trondheim, Norway

    Ruth Schmid

  22. Empa — Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology, St Gallen, Switzerland

    Peter Wick

  23. University Grenoble Alpes, CEA, LETI, Grenoble, Switzerland

    Fanny Caputo & Patrick Boisseau

  24. Cancer Research Technology Program, Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory, Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD, USA

    Rachael M. Crist & Scott E. McNeil

  25. Institute of Environmental Medicine, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden

    Bengt Fadeel

  26. Institute of Occupational Medicine, Edinburgh, UK

    Lang Tran

  27. Department of Environmental Engineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

    Steffen Foss Hansen, Nanna B. Hartmann, Lauge P. W. Clausen, Lars M. Skjolding & Anders Baun

  28. Department of Environmental Science and Analytical Chemistry (ACES), Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden

    Marlene Ågerstrand

  29. Department of Bioengineering, California Nanosystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Zhen Gu

  30. School of Pharmacy, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast, UK

    Dimitrios A. Lamprou

  31. Institute of Science and Technology in Medicine, Keele University, Keele, UK

    Clare Hoskins

  32. Division of Pharmacoengineering and Molecular Pharmaceutics, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC, USA

    Leaf Huang

  33. Key Laboratory of Polymer Ecomaterials, Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Changchun, China

    Wantong Song

  34. State Key Laboratory of High Performance Ceramics and Superfine Microstructure, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai, China

    Huiliang Cao & Xuanyong Liu

  35. Otto Schott Institute of Materials Research, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany

    Huiliang Cao & Klaus D. Jandt

  36. Department of Radiation Oncology, The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX, USA

    Wen Jiang

  37. Department of Neurosurgery, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer, Houston, TX, USA

    Betty Y. S. Kim

  38. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, USA

    Korin E. Wheeler

  39. School of Geography Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, UK

    Andrew J. Chetwynd & Iseult Lynch

  40. School of Pharmacy, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Seyed Moein Moghimi

  41. Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK

    Seyed Moein Moghimi

  42. Division of NanoMedicine, Department of Medicine, California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    André Nel & Tian Xia

  43. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Paul S. Weiss

  44. Department of Bioengineering, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Paul S. Weiss

  45. Department of Materials Science and Engineering, California NanoSystems Institute, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA, USA

    Paul S. Weiss

  46. i3S — Instituto de Investigação e Inovação em Saúde, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Bruno Sarmento & José das Neves

  47. INEB – Instituto de Engenharia Biomédica, Universidade do Porto, Porto, Portugal

    Bruno Sarmento & José das Neves

  48. Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Hélder A. Santos

  49. Dosage Form Design and Development, MedImmune, LLC, Gaithersburg, MD, USA

    Luis Santos

  50. Wyss Institute of Biologically Inspired Engineering, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA

    Samir Mitragotri

  51. Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Steve Little

  52. George S. Wise Faculty of Life Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv, Israel

    Dan Peer

  53. School of Pharmacy, Northeastern University, Boston, MA, USA

    Mansoor M. Amiji

  54. CIMUS Research Institute, Universidade de Santiago de Compostela, Santiago de Compostela, Spain

    Maria José Alonso

  55. Adolphe Merkle Institute, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Alke Petri-Fink, Sandor Balog, Aaron Lee & Barbara Drasler

  56. Department of Chemistry, University of Fribourg, Fribourg, Switzerland

    Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser

  57. Stephenson School of Biomedical Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Stefan Wilhelm, Handan Acar & Roger G. Harrison

  58. Stephenson Cancer Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA

    Stefan Wilhelm, Handan Acar, Roger G. Harrison, Chuanbin Mao, Priyabrata Mukherjee & Rajagopal Ramesh

  59. School of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Roger G. Harrison

  60. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK, USA

    Chuanbin Mao

  61. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China

    Chuanbin Mao

  62. Department of Pathology, University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City, OK, USA

    Priyabrata Mukherjee & Rajagopal Ramesh

  63. Department of Cancer Biology, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Lacey R. McNally

  64. Department of Bioengineering, Wake Forest School of Medicine, Winston-Salem, NC, USA

    Lacey R. McNally

  65. Department of Transplantation Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    Sara Busatto & Joy Wolfram

  66. Department of Physiology and Biomedical Engineering, Mayo Clinic, Jacksonville, FL, USA

    Sara Busatto & Joy Wolfram

  67. Department of Molecular and Translational Medicine, University of Brescia, Brescia, Italy

    Sara Busatto & Paolo Bergese

  68. CSGI, Research Center for Colloids and Nanoscience, Florence, Italy

    Sara Busatto & Paolo Bergese

  69. Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX, USA

    Joy Wolfram & Mauro Ferrari

  70. Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, Weill Cornell Medicine, New York, NY, USA

    Mauro Ferrari

  71. Department of NanoEngineering, Chemical Engineering Program, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Ronnie H. Fang

  72. Moores Cancer Center, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA, USA

    Liangfang Zhang

  73. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, The University of Texas at Dallas, Richardson, TX, USA

    Jie Zheng, Chuanqi Peng, Bujie Du & Mengxiao Yu

  74. Institute of Biomaterials and Biomedical Engineering, University of Toronto Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Danielle M. Charron

  75. Department of Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto Princess Margaret Cancer Centre, University Health Network, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

    Gang Zheng

  76. Nature Nanotechnology, London, UK

    Chiara Pastore

Authors
  1. Hon S. Leong
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Kimberly S. Butler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. C. Jeffrey Brinker
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  4. May Azzawi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  5. Steve Conlan
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  6. Christine Dufés
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  7. Andrew Owen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  8. Steve Rannard
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  9. Chris Scott
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  10. Chunying Chen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  11. Marina A. Dobrovolskaia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  12. Serguei V. Kozlov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  13. Adriele Prina-Mello
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  14. Ruth Schmid
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  15. Peter Wick
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  16. Fanny Caputo
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  17. Patrick Boisseau
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  18. Rachael M. Crist
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  19. Scott E. McNeil
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  20. Bengt Fadeel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  21. Lang Tran
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  22. Steffen Foss Hansen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  23. Nanna B. Hartmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  24. Lauge P. W. Clausen
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  25. Lars M. Skjolding
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  26. Anders Baun
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  27. Marlene Ågerstrand
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  28. Zhen Gu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  29. Dimitrios A. Lamprou
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  30. Clare Hoskins
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  31. Leaf Huang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  32. Wantong Song
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  33. Huiliang Cao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  34. Xuanyong Liu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  35. Klaus D. Jandt
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  36. Wen Jiang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  37. Betty Y. S. Kim
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  38. Korin E. Wheeler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  39. Andrew J. Chetwynd
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  40. Iseult Lynch
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  41. Seyed Moein Moghimi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  42. André Nel
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  43. Tian Xia
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  44. Paul S. Weiss
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  45. Bruno Sarmento
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  46. José das Neves
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  47. Hélder A. Santos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  48. Luis Santos
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  49. Samir Mitragotri
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  50. Steve Little
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  51. Dan Peer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  52. Mansoor M. Amiji
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  53. Maria José Alonso
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  54. Alke Petri-Fink
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  55. Sandor Balog
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  56. Aaron Lee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  57. Barbara Drasler
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  58. Barbara Rothen-Rutishauser
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  59. Stefan Wilhelm
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  60. Handan Acar
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  61. Roger G. Harrison
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  62. Chuanbin Mao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  63. Priyabrata Mukherjee
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  64. Rajagopal Ramesh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  65. Lacey R. McNally
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  66. Sara Busatto
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  67. Joy Wolfram
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  68. Paolo Bergese
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  69. Mauro Ferrari
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  70. Ronnie H. Fang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  71. Liangfang Zhang
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  72. Jie Zheng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  73. Chuanqi Peng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  74. Bujie Du
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  75. Mengxiao Yu
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  76. Danielle M. Charron
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  77. Gang Zheng
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  78. Chiara Pastore
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Chiara Pastore.

Supplementary Information

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Leong, H.S., Butler, K.S., Brinker, C.J. et al. On the issue of transparency and reproducibility in nanomedicine. Nat. Nanotechnol. 14, 629–635 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0496-9

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-019-0496-9

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing