​Dose-response modelling for NanoInformatics toxicity

The NanoInformaTIX project

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NanoInformaTIX is a H2020 project which aims to develop a web-based Sustainable Nanoinformatics Framework (SNF) platform for risk management of engineered nanomaterials (ENM) in industrial manufacturing. The tool will be based on the significant amounts of data on physico-chemical and toxicological and ecotoxicological properties of ENM generated over the last decades, as well as new data coming from research.

The final aim is to provide efficient user-friendly interfaces to enhance accessibility and usability of the nanoinformatics models to industry, regulators, and civil society, thus supporting sustainable manufacturing of ENM-based products.

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WP 5 and WP 5.2 Strategy to calculate in vivo exposure dose based on the modelling strategies developed in NanoInformaTIX

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Work package 5 is focused on dose-response modelling and within this work package, Task 5.2 is devoted to detection of dose-response monotone relationship, dose-response modelling and risk calculation.

Methodology and software development for WP 5.2

 

WP5.2 started with obtaining an overview of all data available in the NanoInformaTIX database as this will give an impression of the type and completeness of data that is available for mining as well as the amount of information that is available for selected endpoints and/or ENM types. The focus was on identification of in vivo and in vitro toxicity endpoints and associated data. For this purpose, an R-package NMTOX was developed that aids in the exploration and subsetting of complex datasets and the investigation of isotonic dose-response trends present in datasets.In addition, after identification of suitable datasets for in vitro toxicity endpoints, dose response curves can be fitted to the data in order to obtain in vitro toxic doses for that specific endpoint and nanomaterial. For this purpose a Shiny app was developed that allow the fitting of several dose-response models to data and to derive the best fitting curve and a weighted average toxic dose at the desired level (e.g. EC10, EC50, …).

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Methodology and software development for WP 5.2 was done in collaboration  between Thomas More University of Applied Sciences and Hasselt University. The project team include, Rahma Nur Aziza (Thomas More & Uhasselt, rahma.azizah@uhasselt.be), Geert Verheyen (Thomas More , geert.verheyen@thomasmore.be), Sabine Van Miert (Thomas More sabine.vanmiert@thomasmore.be) and
Ziv Shkedy (UHasselt, ziv.shkedy@uhasselt.be).