The first eNanoMapper prototype: A substance database to support safe-by-design

The EU-funded eNanoMapper project proposes a computational infrastructure for toxicological data management of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) based on open standards, ontologies and an interoperable design to enable a more effective, integrated approach to European research in nanotechnology. eNanoMapper's goal is to support the collaborative safety assessment for ENMs by creating a modular, extensible infrastructure for transparent data sharing, data analysis, and the creation of computational toxicology models for ENMs. The eNanoMapper database solution builds on previous experience of the consortium partners in supporting diverse data through flexible data storage, semantic web technologies, open source components and web services. A number of opportunities and challenges exist in nanomaterials representation and integration of ENM information, originating from diverse systems. A short summary, highlighting the pros and cons of the existing integration approaches and data models is presented. We demonstrate the approach of adopting an ontology-supported data model, describing the materials and measurements. The data sources supported include diverse formats (ISA-Tab, OECD Harmonized Templates, custom spreadsheet templates, various databases provided by consortia members). Besides retaining the data provenance, the focus on measurements provides insights into how to reuse the chemical structure database tools for nanomaterials characterization and safety.