"The progress made in improving the development and the production of nanoparticles (NPs) is enormous. Metallic nanoparticles (mNPs) are among the most widely used types of NPs in electronics, foods, containers, pharmaceutical drugs, cosmetics and paints. This trend will lead to an ever-increasing presence of NPs in the environment. This scenario means that humans and the environment will be exposed to more and more nanotechnology-based products whose health risks and environmental impacts of NPs might outweigh their benefits.In order to promote prevention and safety in manufacturing and handling of NPs, NADETOX aims at evaluating the nanodevelopmental toxicity of selected metallic cobalt, silver and gold NPs extensively used in nanomedicine for cancer therapy.This novel and multidisciplinary research project is based on the 3Rs in vitro approach (Reduction, Refinement, Replacement), involving the development of a mechanistically-based alternative method, Frog Embryo Teratogenesis Assay-Xenopus (FETAX), and the combined use of peculiar advanced spectrochemical, radioanalytical, biochemical and molecular biology techniques. These methods offer the opportunity to label NPs, avoiding surface modification, to localise and quantify them in organisms.NADETOX aims at the following goals: (i) characterisation of NPs establishing their size and morphology, (ii) study of stability and of the eventual release of metal ions from radiolabelled NPs in the reconstituted water medium suitable for the culture of Xenopus embryos (FETAX medium), (iii) evaluation of embryolethality and teratogenicity of NPs by FETAX assay, (iv) biokinetics studies to measure uptake, metabolic fate and biopersistence of NPs in Xenopus at embryo and larva stages and structure diagnosis at DNA level, to get information on the genomic stability following formation of DNA-adducts."