RTI International has released a reliable web-based resource called the Nanomaterial Registry, which classifies and assesses the environmental and biological implications of a wide variety of nanomaterials using publically available resources.
Michele Ostraat (Jimmy Crawford, RTI International photographer)
The Nanomaterial Registry enables users to browse and compare data on the attributes of well-characterized nanomaterials. Public can freely access the registry available at www.nanomaterialregistry.org. The registry is intended to optimize the standardization and quality of existing techniques related to nanomaterials.
This new resource will be helpful to scientist in the development of new standards, models and production techniques for nanomaterials and to speed up the advancement and assessment of nanomaterials for environmental and biomedical applications.
The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, Department of Health and Human Services, National Institutes of Health, the National Cancer Institute, and the National Institute of Environmental and Health Sciences have funded the project.
Project team members devised minimal information standards for the characterization of nanomaterials to build the registry. These minimal information standards were utilized to create assessment criteria for all the data included in the registry. Information in the registry has been collected from an assortment of current online databases. The addition of new information sources will be followed by their identification and assessment.
The Nanomaterial Registry will also allow nanomaterial researchers to contribute technical data and insights, promote general standards, and determine reliable data for regulatory decision making.
The Project’s principal investigator, Michele Ostraat, who is also a Senior Director at the Center for Aerosol and Nanomaterials Engineering at RTI, informed that this Nanomaterial Registry is an important resource for people involved in the nanotechnology field to identify and analyze nanomaterials across a variety of data sources, protocols, and test methods in the field.