Abstract
The US EPA Office of Research and Development (ORD) has conducted a research program assessing potential risks of emerging materials and technologies, including engineered nanomaterials (ENM). As a component of that program, a nanomaterial knowledge base, termed “NaKnowBase”, was developed containing the results of published ORD research relevant to the potential environmental and biological actions of ENM. The experimental data address issues such as ENM release into the environment; fate, transport and transformations in environmental media; exposure to ecological species or humans; and the potential for effects on those species. The database captures information on the physicochemical properties of ENM tested, assays performed and their parameters, and the results obtained. NaKnowBase (NKB) is a relational SQL database, and may be queried either with SQL code or through a user-friendly web interface. Filtered results may be output in spreadsheet format for subsequent user-defined analyses. Potential uses of the data might include input to quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR), meta-analyses, or other investigative approaches.
Highlights
The recent advances of nanotechnology have led to concerns for the potential release of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) into the environment causing exposure to, and perhaps adverse effects on, humans or sensitive ecological species[1]
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) Office of Research and Development (ORD) has developed a research program aimed at understanding the potential environmental implications of ENM
This publication announces the release of “NaKnowBase” (NKB), a knowledge base containing the results of multiple ORD publications on the actions of ENM in environmental or biological media
Summary
The recent advances of nanotechnology have led to concerns for the potential release of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) into the environment causing exposure to, and perhaps adverse effects on, humans or sensitive ecological species[1]. A framework was developed to organize and integrate this diverse set of information[2] To support this larger effort, a relational database was developed containing ORD nanomaterial research data to better enable the use and synthesis of study results, and to facilitate higher-order analyses such as quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSAR). Collating datasets from multiple sources facilitates more comprehensive meta-analyses, QSAR, and risk assessment approaches such as read-across[4] To date, such “big data” endeavours in ENM EHS tend to be designed around large datasets that must be generated in advance, or remain limited by a paucity of relevant, curated data from disparate sources[4,5,6]. A simple, user-friendly interface was developed which allows users to search the database and obtain outputs of data in spreadsheet format
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