NANOTOXICOLOGY PROJECTS
Misvik participates actively in the European nanosafety work and is part of the EU NanoSafety Cluster. www.nanosafetycluster.eu
Innovative Nanoinformatics models and tools: towards a Solid, verified and Integrated Approach to Predictive (eco)Toxicology (NanoSolveIT)
PATROLS is an international project combining a team of academics, industrial scientists, government officials and risk assessors to deliver advanced and realistic tools and methods for nanomaterial safety assessment. PATROLS will provide an innovative and effective set of laboratory techniques and computational tools to more reliably predict potential human and environmental hazards resulting from engineered nanomaterial (ENM) exposures. These tools will minimise the necessity of animal testing and will support future categorisation of ENMs in order to support safety frameworks.
“The key objective of the caLIBRAte project is to funnel the state-of-the-art in nanosafety research and merge it with state-of-the-art risk governance and communication sciences to establish a versatile risk governance framework for assessment and management of human and environmental risks of ENM and ENM-enabled products. The ultimate goal is that the quality and trust in the nano-specific models in the caLIBRAte risk governance framework will exceed current level of most existing REACH tools.”
The role of Misvik Biology in calibrate is to perform high throughput and high content screening to fill the data gaps existing in the nanomaterial toxicity data.
Prof. Grafström giving a talk at the caLIBRAte kickoff meeting in Denmark
“The overarching aim of the NANOSOLUTIONS consortium is to provide a means to develop a safety classification for engineered nanomaterials (ENM) based on an understanding of their interactions with living organisms at molecular, cellular and organism levels. The objective is to determine the “biological identity” of ENM, and subsequently develop a computer program that can predict from the properties of ENM their ability to cause health or environmental hazards. New innovative methods are needed for the ENM risk assessment of ENM safety, i.e. ENM SAFETY CLASSIFIER. This will allow for the crucial transition from descriptive toxicology to predictive toxicology.”
The role of Misvik Biology in Nanosolutions is to adapt selected low throughput toxicity assays to high throughput format. Additionally our task is to develop the specification for a high-throughput platform for the generation of data necessary for a broadly applicable ENM safety classifier tool.
“eNanoMapper proposes a computational infrastructure for toxicological data management of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) based on open standards, ontologies and an interoperable design to enable a more effective, integrated approach to European research in nanotechnology.
eNanoMapper will support the collaborative safety assessment for ENMs by creating a modular, extensible infrastructure for transparent data sharing, data analysis, and the creation of computational toxicology models for ENMs. Building on recent developments of consortium partners in predictive toxicology, biology and nanotechnology research, we will develop resources, tools and standards for a scientifically sound risk assessment of ENMs that will support the design of new safe and environment-friendly ENMs as well as the assessment of existing materials.”
The role of Misvik Biology in eNanoMapper is to take part and provide expertise on high throughput data specifics for the buildup of a functional database, the development of an ENM applicable ontology and for computational modelling supporting ENM data management and risk assessment.