Nanomaterial-Biological Interactions Knowledgebase

Harper, Stacey. (2010) Nanomaterial-Biological Interactions Knowledgebase. In: Nanoinformatics 2010, November 3 - 5, 2010, Arlington, VA. (Unpublished)

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Abstract

ONAMI, the Oregon Nanoscience and Microtechnologies Institute, is the first Oregon Signature Research Center. A cooperative venture among government and world-class nanoscience and microtechnology R&D institutions and industry in the Northwest, ONAMI was created to cultivate research and commercialization to advance the leading economic sector in Oregon and expand the benefits of technology innovation to traditional and natural resource industries. Environmental health and safety are key considerations across all ONAMI research activities. ONAMI firmly supports the idea that nanotechnology, pursued correctly, can improve our quality of life without safety or environmental risks. A major research thrust of ONAMI is the Safer Nanomaterials and Nanomanufacturing Initiative (SNNI). The goals of the SNNI are to develop new nanomaterials and nanomanufacturing approaches that offer a high level of performance, yet pose minimal harm to human health or the environment. Research under the Initiative merges the principles of green chemistry and nanoscience to produce safer nanomaterials and more efficient nanomanufacturing processes. SNNI is confronting concerns about the biological impact of nanoparticles and has supported the development of a Nanomaterial-Biological Interactions (NBI) Knowledgebase. The NBI knowledgebase serves as a repository for annotated data on nanomaterial characterization (e.g. purity, electronic and photonic properties, size, shape, charge, composition, functionalization, agglomeration state, etc.), synthesis methods, and nanomaterial-biological interactions (i.e. beneficial, benign, or deleterious) defined at multiple levels of biological organization (e.g. molecular, cellular, or organismal); thus providing the framework to conduct species, route, dose and scenario extrapolations and identify key data required to predict the biological interactions of nanomaterials. We are currently cataloging nanomaterials with as much detail (characterization and synthesis methods) as possible in order to establish useful metrics and mathematically define the relationships between physicochemical properties/synthesis methods of diverse nanomaterials and their biological interactions. NBI was designed to enhance dissemination of critical data and information on nanomaterial hazards to industry, academia, regulatory agencies, and the general public. This expert system is being further developed to predict the toxic potential of unsynthesized nanomaterials, provide the computational and analytic tools to suggest material design or redesign that may minimize hazard, and propose experimental platforms/methods most predictive of nanomaterial-biological interactions. Features of the NBI knowledgebase will allow for unbiased interpretations of nanoparticle-biological interactions, discovery of unique structural characteristics that govern nanomaterial-biology interactions, and determination of critical data required to predict effects from nanomaterial exposure.

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