Safe by design for the next generation of nanomaterials Nanomaterials can be engineered to have unique properties relevant to specific applications, but it’s also important to consider their safety and wider impact. We spoke to Lisa Bregoli about the NanoInformaTIX project’s work in developing a framework and a web-based platform to predict the behaviour of nanomaterials, which will support their safe-by-design development. A lot of attention in research is focused on the development of engineered nanomaterials, with scientists across the world working to develop new materials with potential applications across a wide variety of sectors, including healthcare, electronics and manufacturing. While engineered nanomaterials (ENM) have a lot of potential, it’s also important to consider their safety and wider impact, a topic at the heart of the NanoInformaTIX project. “In the project we have created a modelling framework to predict the safety profiles of nanomaterials, a sort of decision support system for manufacturers of new materials and products,” explains Lisa Bregoli, the project’s dissemination manager. A lot of data is currently available from the characterization and testing of nanomaterials, the result of decades of research all around the globe, says Bregoli. “This huge amount of relevant data has to be exploited in such a way that it can be used by manufacturers of new products containing ENM, as a guide in their product development phase,” she outlines. www.euresearcher.com
Nanomaterials This forms the backdrop to the NanoInformaTIX project’s work, in which researchers have connected the dots between the available data and models. This has led to the development of a web-based platform designed to support manufacturers and help them understand and predict the safety profile of their ENM-containing products during their development pipeline. ENM have at least one dimension between 1-100 nanometres and very specific properties. “They may have surface energies for example that cause different types of physical interactions with the surrounding molecules, leading to specific behaviours,” says Bregoli. “These behaviours can be beneficial, for example in creating self-cleaning materials, or for delivering drugs precisely to the site of disease, avoiding side-effects.” On the other hand, the standard models used for assessing safety cannot be applied to nanomaterials, an issue that Bregoli and her colleagues have addressed in NanoInformaTIX. “In the project we
integrated data from several relevant EU (and US) databases with validated nanoinformatics models,” she says. “We have also created new models and in vitro/in vivo extrapolations to support the prediction of biological effects and exposure of ENM at various stages of their life cycle.” The project was structured into six technical ‘workpackages (WP)’, or groups of activities, the first of which was devoted to data and databases. Existing databases such as eNanoMapper bring together biological and toxicological information on nanomaterials, as well as characterization data. “Every single dimension and property of a nanomaterial can really make a difference in terms of interaction with the surrounding environment, so you have to describe the nanomaterial in a very detailed way, including characteristics like size and shape,” outlines Bregoli. For this reason, a lot of the NanoInformatIX team’s attention was centered on developing a standardised way of describing nanomaterials and reporting data on the databases in a way which meets
45