Online Nanomaterial Registry Expands, Prepares for 'Big Data'

RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C. – RTI International recently added hundreds of new data records to the Nanomaterial Registry, an authoritative, web-based resource that organizes and evaluates the biological and environmental implications of well-characterized nanomaterials from publicly available resources.

The Nanomaterial Registry, available free to the public at www.nanomaterialregistry.org, allows users to search, browse and compare data on the characteristics of a wide variety of nanomaterials.

The new records include several National Institute of Standards and Technology reference material nanoparticles. The Nanomaterial Registry now also includes records from data-rich strategic partners, with new records on nanomaterials that are most commonly used in consumer products and medical applications, including gold, silver and silica nanoparticles.

Launched by RTI in 2012, the Nanomaterial Registry is intended to serve as a comprehensive resource for the nanomaterial community, providing data that have been curated based on minimal information standards built with broad community acceptance.  This single resource systematically organizes data from diverse sources, including researchers and manufacturers, to accelerate the discoveries on both the benefits and risks of nanomaterials.

“We are approaching  1000 public data records available on the Nanomaterial Registry’s website, with many more records currently being processed and soon to be added,” said Michele Ostraat, Ph.D., senior director of the Center for Aerosol and Nanomaterials Engineering at RTI and the project's principal investigator. “As we continue to add new data records, the utility and impact of these gathered data will increase through their yield of more interesting information from the website’s data matching, comparison and search features.”

This project has been funded in whole with federal funds from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and the following partners: the National Institute of Environmental and Health Sciences, and the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, under Contract No. HHSN268201000022C.