Rudolf Buchheim Award 2026: Toward a ToxAtlas of carbon-based nanomaterials: single-cell RNA sequencing reveals initiating cell circuits in pulmonary inflammation.

The Rudolf Buchheim Award of the German Society for Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology (DGPT) honors outstanding contributions by early-career scientists in pharmacology and toxicology. The 2026 award recognizes research that advances mechanistic understanding of the initiation of respiratory inflammation by carbon-based nanomaterials (CBN). While pulmonary inflammation is recognized as an early adverse but generic response to inhaled particles, only little is known about the initiating events and involved cell types. Carola Voss systematically dissected cell type-specific responses to soot-like carbon nanoparticles, flexible double-walled carbon nanotubes, and needle-like multi-walled carbon nanotubes known for their asbestos-like toxicity at single-cell resolution in the lab of Dr. Tobias Stoeger at Helmholtz Munich. Using advanced single-cell transcriptomics of CBN-exposed mouse lungs, this research establishes a toxicological atlas that links physicochemical CBN properties to cell-specific inflammatory initiation, cellular stress responses, and immune cell recruitment. The findings provide a conceptual framework for mode of action-based hazard assessment and support the rational design of safer nanomaterials along with the development of specific in vitro assays.