Though some nanomedicines have progressed to the clinic and are now in regular use, the field of cancer nanomedicine still has much to gain from investment in basic nanoparticle science. To address this, the National Cancer Institute (NCI) in conjunction with a team at Leidos Biomedical Research have developed a database designed for the needs of the nanomedicine community, known as caNanoLab. The US NCI cancer Nanotechnology Laboratory (caNanoLab) data portal is an online nanomaterial database that allows users to submit and retrieve information on well-characterized nanomaterials available for clinical translation, including composition, in vitro and in vivo experimental characterizations, experimental protocols, and related publications. The database structure is based on characterization assays required for clinical regulatory review performed by the Nanotechnology Characterization Laboratory (NCL) using a model informed by standards such as the NanoParticle Ontology (NPO) and ISA-TAB. The curation of nanotechnology information is accomplished by selecting relevant publications, manually extracting reported text and data, submitting extracted information into caNanoLab and converting to ISA-TAB-Nano files to enable data exchange. The caNanoLab team strives to build a community of users to enhance the quality of submitted data. The first step in this effort has been to build a network of data coordinators who act as the representatives from each Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer program (Alliance) awardee, now expanding to include coordinators from the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) Health Implications Research (NHIR) Consortium. The caNanoLab team is also working with other groups to develop data standards and guidelines for data submission and sharing including community-based programs such as the NCI Nanotechnology Working Group (Nano WG) and the National Nanotechnology Initiative (NNI). caNanoLab is unique among nano data curation and collection initiatives because of its cancer translational focus, as well as the depth of data and metadata held for each sample. It is also home to standardized characterization protocols from the NCL, made available to the public. Though the primary focus is to curate information about cancer nanomedicines, the content of caNanoLab is relevant to the broader biomedical research field with interests in the use of nanotechnology for the development of diagnostics and therapeutics.

caNanoLab: Enhancing retrieval and sharing of cancer nanotechnology data

2019 Fall National Meeting

The official archive and repository for all ACS Meetings & Expositions abstracts and select posters or presentations.