Assessment of Progress - Research Progress on Environmental Health and Safety Aspects of Engineered Nanomaterials - page 20

BOX 3-1 Status of Indicators of Research Progress 1
Adaptive Research and Knowledge for Accelerating Research Progress and Providing Rapid Feedback to
Advance the Research
 Extent of development of libraries of well-characterized nanomaterials, including those prevalent in
commerce and reference and standard materials
 Development of methods for detecting, characterizing, tracking, and monitoring nanomaterials and their
transformations in simple, well-characterized media
 Development of methods to quantify effects of nanomaterials in experimental systems
 Extent of joining of existing databases, including development of common informatics ontologies
 Advancement of systems for sharing the results of research and fostering development of predictive
models of nanomaterial behaviors
Quantifying and Characterizing the Origins of Nanomaterial Releases
 Developing inventories of current and near-term production of nanomaterials
 Developing inventories of intended uses of nanomaterials and value-chain transfers
 Identifying critical release points along the value chain
 Identifying critical populations or systems exposed
 Characterizing released materials in complex environments
 Modeling nanomaterial releases along the value chain
Processes That Affect Both Exposure and Hazard
 Steps taken toward development of a knowledge infrastructure able to describe the diversity and dynamics
of nanomaterials and their transformations in complex biologic and environmental media
 Progress in developing instrumentation to measure key nanomaterial properties and changes in them in
complex biologic and environmental media
 Initiation of interdisciplinary research that can relate native nanomaterial structures to transformations that
occur in organisms and as a result of biologic processes
 Extent of use of experimental research results in initial models for predicting nanomaterial behavior in
complex biologic and environmental settings
Nanomaterial Interactions in Complex Systems Ranging from Subcellular Systems to Ecosystems
 Extent of initiation of studies that address the impacts of nanomaterials on a variety of end points in
complex systems, such as studies that link in vitro to in vivo observations, that examine effects on important
biologic pathways, and that investigate ecosystem effects
 Extent of adaptation of existing system-level tools (such as individual species tests, microcosms, and
organ-system models) to support studies of nanomaterials in such systems
 Development of a set of screening tools that reflect important characteristics or toxicity pathways of the
complex systems described above
 Steps toward development of models for exposure and potential ecologic effects
 Identification of benchmark (positive and negative) and reference materials for use in studies and
measurement tools and methods to estimate exposure and dose in complex systems
1 The wording and ordering of some indicators have been modified from NRC (2012, pp. 181-182). Details of
the modifications are noted in the descriptions of the indicators in this chapter.