Welcome To ToxNano

Toxicity Screening for Nanomaterials

Model Features

Raw Data Visualization

Plate visualization allows initial visual inspection of HTS and HC datasets to evaluate the consistency of sample replicates and the effectiveness of positive/negative controls. Rapid data visualization can then guide the selection of suitable statistical methods for subsequent data analysis.

HTS Processing

Hit-identification can be performed to identify samples of high bioactivity (i.e. ‘hits’) for further confirmatory tests, as well as toxicity response interpretation and modeling. Heat maps can subsequently be generated to depict sample bioactivity (summarized HTS data) in a color map for convenient visual inspection.

Outlier Removal and Plate Normalization

Outlier removal from experimental HTS datasets may be required in order to exclude abnormal values (i.e. statistically inconsistent and thus unlikely to belong to the dataset) and thus ensure robust and reliable inference of ENM toxicity. HTS plate normalization is essential in order to account for plate-to-plate variability, remove systematic errors (e.g. positional effects) and compare/combine data from different plates.

Clustering

Clustering can be performed to extract information that is useful for ENM risk assessment and decision making. For example, SOM clustering analysis can group together ENMs of similar HTS bioactivity profiles, indicating that these ENMs might share common toxicity mechanisms.

About

The High Throughput Screening (HTS) Data Analysis Tools (HDAT) is a suite of tools developed in order to meet the requirements of rapid and reliable data analyses for the increasing utilization of HTS in ENMs toxicity studies. HDAT provides different plate normalization methods, various HTS summarization statistics, self- organizing map (SOM)-based clustering analysis, and visualization of raw and processed data using both heat map and SOM. HDAT has been successfully used in numerous HTS studies of ENM toxicity, thereby enabling analysis of toxicity mechanisms and development of structure–activity relationships for ENM toxicity. HDAT encourages the standardization of and future advances in HTS as well as facilitating convenient inter-laboratory comparisons of HTS datasets.