Nanotoxicology & Nanosafety

nanomaterials – safe-by-design

Nanomaterials (NM) bring exciting novel materials properties with them to generate advanced materials and nanoelectronics and fulfil many urgent needs, from low friction tyres (nanotechnology) and high performance batteries (advanced materials) to high efficiency LED and sensors (Nanoelectronics).

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Nanomaterials are a Key enabling technology for European manufacturing and industrial innovation on its way to sustainable economies.

The novelty of the NM material properties requires a new approach to toxicology and materials design, integrating the material safety already into the design process, the safe-by-design approach.

Projects

LabVantage-Biomax contributes to this approach in a number of large scale EU-research projects on Nanosafety.

( Click on a project to learn more )

NanoCommons addresses this gap, by creating a community framework and infrastructure for reproducible science, and in particular in silico workflows for nanomaterials and beyond.

NanoSolveIT introduces a ground-breaking in silico Integrated Approach to Testing and Assessment (IATA) for the environmental health and safety of NM, implemented through a decision support system.

NanoSolveIT will develop and deliver: (i) a reliable user friendly knowledge-based infrastructure for data hosting, sharing and exploitation, (ii) NM fingerprints, sets of nanodescriptors and properties that can be predictively linked to NM functionality, exposure and hazard, thereby supporting NM grouping, safe-by-design and regulatory risk assessment (RA), (iii) innovative methodologies for NMs predictive (eco)toxicology underpinned by artificial intelligence (AI) and state-of-the-art in silico techniques, and, (iv) integration with currently developing multi-scale modelling, read-across and governance frameworks.

NanoFASE and NanoMILE produced ground breaking data on physical-chemical characterisation, toxicology, environmental distribution and ecotoxicology which form part of the basis of the NanoCommons KB.

More details

LabVantage-Biomax provides the BioXM™ Knowledge Management Environment in Nanosafety project to generate a federated interoperability ecosystem that enables multiple existing project specific data warehouses, including the BioXM based NanoFASE and NanoMILE DBs, to be harmonised and accessed in a unified way.

At the same time the BioXM technology provides the standardised application programming interface (API) to integrate analytical and computational modelling software.

The resulting NanoCommons Knowledge Base is a proof-of-concept public Nanoinformatics infrastructure that is freely available for data storage, curation, search, retrieval and analysis as well as computational modelling.

It forms the base of the NanoSolveIT platform which provides automatized workflows for an Integrated Approach to Testing and Assessment (IATA). Enabling Nanomaterial producers as well as regulators to access relevant data, simulation tools and results.

How it works

Standards and certifications

Supporting clinical research privacy tasks
(GDPR, ISO 9001, ISO 27001)

LabVantage-Biomax is ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certified and applies the corresponding procedures of quality management and IT-security. The NeuroXMTM Brain Science Suite provides encrypted data transfer, authentication, detailed access control based on resources and roles and full audit.

All technological and organisational measures required by the GDPR are implemented.

GDPR compatible data processing agreement templates are available and corresponding contracts have been approved by company and clinical data protection officers in major European countries.

The ISO 9001 based quality management ensures consistence between specification and reported result, including reviews of requirements and technical specifications, software implementation and documentation.

Quality assessment according to ISO 29119 includes unit, integration, regression and acceptance testing.

Fair data

Ensuring FAIR data
from experimental to computational

LabVantage-Biomax provides the BioXM™ Knowledge Management Environment as technological framework and its data scientist semantic modelling expertise to generate the interoperable Knowledge Base that provides access to data sources, data analysis tools and computational modelling. In NanoMILE and NanoFASE we also provided data curation and quality services.

Scientific background

Scientific background

Between 500 and 2,000 NM are expected to fall under the EU registration obligations of REACH and other legislations (e.g., for cosmetics). Costs between €6 million and €38 million per NM are expected to meet the testing and registration requirements. Read-across approaches, judging the toxicity of chemicals by “similarity”, would reduce this cost dramatically but  are currently absent for NMs due to a lack of definition of what “similarity” is. 

The availability of a nanosafety knowledge infrastructure, that organises data, makes it accessible, integrates computational tools for risk assessment and decision support, enables their validation and facilitates the necessary grouping and such new approaches for NMs will be a critical factor to enable read-across and therefore reduce cost.

Partners and Publications

PartnerCountry
Acondicionamiento Trarrasense Associacion (LEITAT Technological Centre)Spain
Applied Nanoparticles SLSpain
Attana ABSweden
BASFGermany
BioNanoNet Forschungsgesellschaft mbHAustria
Board of Trustees of Jackson State UniversityUnited States of America
Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefungGermany
Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA)France
Det nationale Forskningscenter for ArbejdsmiljoDenmark
Duke University, Center for Environmental Implications of Nanotechnologies (CEINT)United States of America
Edelweiss ConnectSwitzerland
Eidgenössische Anstalt für Wasserversorgung, Abwasserreinigung und Gewässerschutz (EAWAG)Switzerland
Eidgenössische Materialprüfungs- und ForschungsanstaltSwitzerland
ETSS AGSwitzerland
EurofinsGermany
European Virtual Institute for Integrated Risk Management (EU-VRi)Germany
FCC Construccion SASpain
Federal Institute for Risk AssessmentGermany
GBP Consulsting LtdUnited Kingdom
Georg-August-Universitat GottingenGermany
Goeteborgs UniversitetSweden
Industry-University Cooperation Foundation of Hanyang UniversityKorea
INOTEX SPOL SROCzech Republic
INSTITUT FUR ENERGIE UND UMWELTTECHNIK EV – IUTAGermany
INSTITUT NATIONAL DE LENVIRONNEMENT ET DESRISQUES INERISFrance
INSTITUT SYMLOGFrance
Joint Research Centre, Institute for Consumer Health and Protection (JRC IHCP)Belgium
Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)Germany
LA TROBE UNIVERSITYAustralia
Leibniz-Institut für umweltmedizinische Forschung an der Heinrich-Heine-Universität DüsseldorfGermany
Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München (LMU)Germany 
Maastricht UniversityNetherlands
MALVERN INSTRUMENTS LTDUnited Kingdom
MISVIK BIOLOGY OYFinnland
Nano4imagingGermany
NanoSightUnited Kingdom
NATIONAL HEALTH LABORATORY SERVICESZA
NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES INCORPORATED ADMINISTRATIVE AGENCYJapan
National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)United States of America
National Research Centre for the Working Environment (NRCWE)Denmark
National Technical University of AthensGreece
National University Ireland Dublin – University College DublinIreland
Natural Environment Research Council, Centre for Ecology and HydrologyUnited Kingdom
NEDERLANDSE ORGANISATIE VOOR TOEGEPAST NATUURWETENSCHAPPELIJK ONDERZOEK TNONetherlands
NORSK INSTITUTT FOR LUFTFORSKNING STIFTELSENorway
Novamechanics LtdCyprus
Oregon State UniversityUnited States of America
Paris Lodron University, SalzburgAustria
PENSOFT PUBLISHERSBulgaria
PERKINELMER SVERIGE ABSweden
PINTURAS HEMPEL SASpain
Promethean ParticlesUnited Kingdom
PRZEDSIEBIORSTWO AMEPOX SP ZOOPoland
QSAR LAB SPOLKA Z OGRANICZONA ODPOWIEDZIALNOSCIAPoland
Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu, Ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport (RIVM)Netherlands
STICHTING VUNetherlands
STICHTING WAGENINGEN RESEARCHNetherlands
STOCKHOLMS UNIVERSITETSweden
SVERIGES LANTBRUKSUNIVERSITETSweden
TAMPEREEN YLIOPISTOFinnland
TARTU ULIKOOLEE
TECHNICKA UNIVERZITA V LIBERCICzech Republic
THE CHANCELLOR MASTERS AND SCHOLARS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORDUnited Kingdom
The University of BirminghamKingdom
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT CHAPEL HILLUnited States of America
UNITED KINGDOM RESEARCH AND INNOVATION (NERC/UKRI)United Kingdom
UNIVERSIDADE DE AVEIROPortugal
UNIVERSITA CA’ FOSCARI VENEZIAItaly
UNIVERSITAT WIENAustria
UNIVERSITE DE GENEVESwitzerland
UNIVERSITEIT MAASTRICHTNetherlands
University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)United States of America
University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom
University of ExeterUnited Kingdom
University of GenevaSwitzerland
University of LjubljanaSlovenia
UNIVERSITY OF PLYMOUTHUnited Kingdom
University of UtrechtNetherlands
UNIVERZA V LJUBLJANISlovenia
VitrocellGermany
WAGENINGEN UNIVERSITYNetherlands
  1. Afantitis A, et al. NanoSolveIT Project: Driving nanoinformatics research to develop innovative and integrated tools for in silico nanosafety assessment. Comput Struct Biotechnol J. 2020;18:583–602. DOI: 10.1016/j.csbj.2020.02.023
  2. Raimúndez E, Keller S, Ebert K, Hug S, Theis FJ, Maier D, Luber B, Hasenauer J. Model-based analysis of response and Papadiamantis AG, Klaessig FC, Exner TE, Hofer S, Hofstaetter N, Himly M, Williams MA, Doganis P, Hoover MD, Afantitis A, Melagraki G, Nolan TS, Rumble J, Maier D, Lynch I. Metadata Stewardship in Nanosafety Research: Community-Driven Organisation of Metadata Schemas to Support FAIR Nanoscience Data. Nanomaterials [Internet]. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute; 2020 Oct; 10(10):2033. https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/10/10/2033
  3. Ammar A, Bonaretti S, Winckers L, Quik J, Bakker M, Maier D, Lynch I, van Rijn J, Willighagen E. A Semi-Automated Workflow for FAIR Maturity Indicators in the Life Sciences. Nanomaterials. Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute; 2020 Oct;10(10):2068. https://www.mdpi.com/2079-4991/10/10/2068

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