Traceability and reliability: Quality standards for data in nano safety

Karlsruhe, January 20, 2020 — Nanoparticles can be found today in almost all areas of work and life. They make touchscreens conductive, increase the storage capacity of batteries, improve the tolerability of drugs or make components lighter and more stable. More and more people are coming into contact with them. At 1 to 100 nanometers (1 Nm = 10−9 m), nanoparticles are similar in size to some viruses or medical drug molecules. This raises serious questions: What influence do nanoparticles have on the reactions in human cells? What properties must they have to be safe? And what is the best way to make the scientific data available and comparable?

Safety in the manufacture and application of nanoparticles is of great social importance. Extensive research is being conducted on the use of nanoparticles. However, the recommendations for approval for an increasing number of applications are still based on data that are generally difficult to understand.

With the NanoS-QM project, the Federal Ministry for Education and Research (BMBF) is promoting the development of overarching description standards and reliable quality criteria for data in nano safety research - and also in industrial application. This regards, for example, material production or material properties. Another topic are the mechanisms of action of nanomaterials in biological systems.

Traceable research data for safe applications
Valid research data are the basis for reliable recommendations for approval. Their multidisciplinary use should help to better regulate the use of nanoparticles so that their advantages can be exploited with as little risk as possible. For this reason, the research partners of FIZ Karlsruhe as coordinator of the joint project come from a wide range of different fields: material sciences, health and toxicology, pneumology, occupational safety, information infrastructure and knowledge transfer. Partners are: Leibniz-Institut für Arbeitsforschung (IfADo), Leibniz-Institut für Werkstofforientierte Technologien - IWT, Leibniz-Institut für umweltmedizinische Forschung (IUF) and INM - Leibniz-Institut für Neue Materialien.

Prof. Dr. Eduard Arzt, Scientific Director of INM says: “The results of NanoS-QM are supposed to contribute to the standardization of procedures, descriptions and quality criteria in security research”.  Project coordinator Matthias Razum, Head of e-Research at FIZ Karlsruhe, confirms this objective: “In the future, research data should be more comprehensible and reusable and at the same time be sufficiently reliable for regulatory processes“.

The ambitious research project will run until July 31, 2021. More information on the project is available on the websites of FIZ Karlsruhe and Leibniz-Forschungsverbund “Nanosicherheit”.

FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure is a not-for-profit limited liability company. As one of the largest non-academic information infrastructure institutions in Germany, we have the public mission to provide researchers and scientists with scientific in-formation and to develop the appropriate products and services. To this end, we edit and index large data volumes from manifold sources, develop and operate innovative information services and e-research solutions, and carry out research projects of our own. FIZ Karlsruhe is a member of the Leibniz Association which comprises more than 95 institutions involved in research activities and/or the development of scientific infrastructure.

Press contact
Uwe Friedrich
Science communication
Phone +49 7247 808 109
uwe.friedrich [at] fiz-karlsruhe.de (uwe[dot]friedrich[at]fiz-karlsruhe[dot]de)

Weitere Informationen
FIZ Karlsruhe – Leibniz Institute for Information Infrastructure
Hermann-von-Helmholtz-Platz 1
76344 Eggenstein-Leopoldshafen
Phone +49 7247 808 555
contact [at] fiz-karlsruhe.de

PDF available 173 K