title: Nanoinformatics knowledge infrastructures: bringing efficient information management to nanomedical research.
abstract: Nanotechnology represents an area of particular promise and significant opportunity across multiple scientific disciplines. Ongoing nanotechnology research ranges from the characterization of nanoparticles and nanomaterials to the analysis and processing of experimental data seeking correlations between nanoparticles and their functionalities and side effects. Due to their special properties, nanoparticles are suitable for cellular-level diagnostics and therapy, offering numerous applications in medicine, e.g. development of biomedical devices, tissue repair, drug delivery systems and biosensors. In nanomedicine, recent studies are producing large amounts of structural and property data, highlighting the role for computational approaches in information management. Whilein vitroandin vivoassays are expensive, the cost of computing is falling. Furthermore, improvements in the accuracy of computational methods (e.g. data mining, knowledge discovery, modeling and simulation) have enabled effective tools to automate the extraction, management and storage of these vast data volumes. Since this information is widely distributed, one major issue is how to locate and access data where it resides (which also poses data-sharing limitations). The novel discipline of nanoinformatics addresses the information challenges related to nanotechnology research. In this paper, we summarize the needs and challenges in the field and present an overview of extant initiatives and efforts.
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Informatics Group, Dept. Inteligencia Artificial, Facultad de Informatica, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, 28660, Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: de la Iglesia
authors.affiliation: Advanced Biomedical Computing Center, National Cancer Institute, SAIC-Frederick Inc., Frederick National Laboratory for Cancer Research, Frederick, MD 21702, USA.
authors.forename: R E
authors.initials: RE
authors.lastname: Cachau
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Informatics Group, Dept. Inteligencia Artificial, Facultad de Informatica, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, 28660, Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: García-Remesal
authors.affiliation: Biomedical Informatics Group, Dept. Inteligencia Artificial, Facultad de Informatica, Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, 28660, Boadilla del Monte, Madrid, Spain.
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Maojo