A blueprint from a COST Action is helping the EU-funded NanoInformaTIX project to design computer models for creating safer nanoparticles. The modelling can help industry to carry out accurate risk-assessments for proposed particles, reduce animal testing and speed up product development.
With thousands of potential applications of engineered nanoparticles — man-made particles a billionth of a centimetre across — industry needs a speedy method to identify the best research ideas. Computer models from the EU-funded NanoInformaTIX project (2019-2023) can test proposed nanoparticles more quickly and with less animal testing than in traditional lab-based research.
The models will predict whether a proposed nanoparticle could work as intended and, most importantly, whether its special properties are also safe for people and the environment. “The aim is to design a particle and work out its risk without performing animal experiments at the early stages,” says Professor Lang Tran of the Institute of Occupational Medicine in Edinburgh in the UK.
“It also saves time and costs to market,” he adds. “At the moment, industry has to make a particle then test it. If it is toxic, they are back to square one.”
NanoInformaTIX has its roots in COST Action ‘Modelling Nanomaterial Toxicity’ (MODENA), which Tran chaired. The tool will show whether any of a group of proposed particles are toxic and which part of the design is the most likely cause. Follow-on classical lab work can then focus only on nanoparticles that are likely to be safe.
“Industry needs a clear idea of what chemical and physical aspects of new materials to avoid,” says Tran. “You can reduce 10 ideas to 2 for later-stage testing.”
Seamless transition
The 31-country COST Action of nanomaterial scientists, toxicologists, and computer modellers ran from 2012 to 2016 to produce proof-of-concept models and a development blueprint for computer assessment of nanoparticle risk.
“MODENA moved almost seamlessly on to NanoInformaTIX,” Tran says. “All the main elements were there – the theory and the ideas. Most of the partners are from MODENA, and it is coordinated by the Action’s vice chair, Professor Miguel Bañares.”
He adds that the Action even influenced EU funding being made available for nanoparticle modelling. “MODENA put the modelling issue on the EU research agenda,” he adds.
Transparent assessment
MODENA’s models are being developed into an extensive web-based platform. “NanoInformaTIX will provide a set of computer tools that you can use to predict nanomaterials’ impacts throughout their life cycle, from product development to disposal. If a molecule is toxic, you can play with the tools to change it or its manufacturing steps, if needed,” Tran says.
Scientific data will be from completed EU and US projects, publications and ongoing research. A decision-support tool from an EU-funded project, 4FUN, which ran in parallel to MODENA, completes the NanoInformaTIX platform.
The planned platform could be adapted to industry, regulator, research and civil society needs, with harmonised operating protocols for all modules. The results could also help policymakers govern how nanotechnology is used. “All should be able to assess a particle profile from the same tool for transparent rules to judge safety,” concludes Tran.