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Towards FAIR nanosafety data

Matters Arising to this article was published on 23 December 2021

Abstract

Nanotechnology is a key enabling technology with billions of euros in global investment from public funding, which include large collaborative projects that have investigated environmental and health safety aspects of nanomaterials, but the reuse of accumulated data is clearly lagging behind. Here we summarize challenges and provide recommendations for the efficient reuse of nanosafety data, in line with the recently established FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable and reusable) guiding principles. We describe the FAIR-aligned Nanosafety Data Interface, with an aggregated findability, accessibility and interoperability across physicochemical, bio–nano interaction, human toxicity, omics, ecotoxicological and exposure data. Overall, we illustrate a much-needed path towards standards for the optimized use of existing data, which avoids duplication of efforts, and provides a multitude of options to promote safe and sustainable nanotechnology.

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Fig. 1: Accessible nanosafety data.
Fig. 2: Interoperable nanosafety data.
Fig. 3: Reusable nanosafety data.

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Data availability

The datasets described here are available through the Nanosafety Data Interface and the NanoReg2 database (https://search.data.enanomapper.net/projects/nanoreg2). Data generated within NANoREG, NanoReg2 and the omics metadata are publicly available under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 license. The NanoReg2 generated data is also available as SQL (DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.4713745, accessed 23 April 2021). Data that originate from the projects NanoTEST, ENPRA, MARINA and NANOGENOTOX are currently restricted from public use.

Code availability

The eNanoMapper data model is implemented in the open-source chemical substance management software AMBIT (http://ambit.sf.net). Machine readability for data retrieval and analysis is facilitated via an open source JavaScript client library (https://github.com/ideaconsult/jToxKit) and a Python client library (https://github.com/ideaconsult/pynanomapper).

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Acknowledgements

The work leading to this article has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation programme, Grant Agreements no. 646221 (NanoReg2, 2015–2019), no. 814401 (Gov4Nano, 2019–2022) and no. 814425 (RiskGONE 2019–2023). In addition, the European Union’s 7th Framework Programme projects NANoREG (2013–2017, Grant Agreement no. 310584), NanoTEST (2008–2012, no. 201335) and ENPRA (2009–2012, no. 228789), the European Union’s Health Programme Joint Action project NANOGENOTOX (2010–2013, no. 2009 21 01) and the US NIH NCI caNanoLab portal are acknowledged for providing data.

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Contributions

N.J. and P.N. conceptualized the study, interpreted the results and drafted the manuscript. A.H. designed and coordinated the work and acquisition of the data. M.D.A., C.A., F.B., A.B., C. Battistelli, C. Bossa, A.B.-P., A.C., I.D.A., M.D., N.E.Y., A.G., P.G.-F., D.G., R.G., M.G., N.R.J., V.J., K.A.J., N.K., P.K., N.M., E.M., A.M., J.M.N., V.P., A.P., T.P., K.R., P.R., I.R.L., E.R.-P., R.S., N.S. and S.T. contributed to the acquisition and analysis of data, as well as the formulation of the methods and results. All the authors approved the final version of the manuscript and agree to being accountable for their own contributions.

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Correspondence to Nina Jeliazkova or Penny Nymark.

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Peer review information Nature Nanotechnology thanks Wojciech Chrzanowski and Iseult Lynch for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Supplementary Figs. 1 and 2, Methods and Tables 1 and 2.

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Jeliazkova, N., Apostolova, M.D., Andreoli, C. et al. Towards FAIR nanosafety data. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16, 644–654 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41565-021-00911-6

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