International Journal of Nanomedicine Open Access Full Text Article Nanoinformatics: a new area of research in nanomedicine open access to scientific and medical research Dovepress R E V I E w Victor Maojo1 Martin Fritts2,3 Diana de la Iglesia1 Raul E Cachau4 Miguel Garcia-Remesal1 Joyce A Mitchell5 Casimir Kulikowski6 1Biomedical Informatics Group, Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial, Facultad de Informática, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Spain; 2SAIC-Frederick Inc, National Cancer Institute at Frederick, Frederick, Maryland, 3National Institute of Standards and Technology, Gaithersburg, Maryland, 4Advanced Biomedical Computing Center, National Cancer Institute, SAIC-Frederick Inc, Frederick, Maryland, 5Department of Biomedical Informatics, University of Utah, Utah, 6Department of Computer Science, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, New Jersey, USA Abstract: Over a decade ago, nanotechnologists began research on applications of nanomaterials for medicine. This research has revealed a wide range of different challenges, as well as many opportunities. Some of these challenges are strongly related to informatics issues, dealing, for instance, with the management and integration of heterogeneous information, defining nomenclatures, taxonomies and classifications for various types of nanomaterials, and research on new modeling and simulation techniques for nanoparticles. Nanoinformatics has recently emerged in the USA and Europe to address these issues. In this paper, we present a review of nanoinformatics, describing its origins, the problems it addresses, areas of interest, and examples of current research initiatives and informatics resources. We suggest that nanoinformatics could accelerate research and development in nanomedicine, as has occurred in the past in other fields. For instance, biomedical informatics served as a fundamental catalyst for the Human Genome Project, and other genomic and –omics projects, as well as the translational efforts that link resulting molecular-level research to clinical problems and findings. Keywords: biomedical informatics, nanomedicine, nanotoxicology, ontologies, electronic health records Introduction Recently, a consensus has begun to emerge about the informatics infrastructure needed to gather, curate, and share information among all the stakeholders in nanotechnology. A more effective nanoinformatics infrastructure should allow for efficient and exten- sive sharing of data, information, and knowledge about nanotechnology research and applications. In this review, we will initially focus on the medical applications of nanotechnology and their relationships to nanoinformatics. To avoid confusion with term usage, we use only the term “nanoinformatics” even though specific illustra- tive examples may be referenced in the literature under “bio-nanoinformatics” or “nanomedicine informatics.” Finally, we will address other fields of application in nanotechnology with a discussion of the current directions and needs for developing a broader nanoinformatics infrastructure. Correspondence: Victor Maojo Biomedical Informatics Group, Departamento de Inteligencia Artificial, Faculdad de Informática, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Boadilla del Monte, 28660 Madrid, Spain Tel +34 91 336 68 97 Fax +34 91 352 48 19 Email vmaojo@fi.upm.es Existing capability: biomedical informatics The use of computers in biomedicine began in the 1950s, with early applications in hospitals,1 and pioneering scientific computer programs for modeling the diagnostic process.2 Somewhat later, computational biology emerged to tackle problems of scientific inquiry at the molecular level. The field of medical informatics gradually developed, and came to include areas such as computerized medical records; artificial intelligence submit your manuscript | www.dovepress.com Dovepress http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/IJN.S24582 International Journal of Nanomedicine 2012:7 3867–3890 © 2012 Maojo et al, publisher and licensee Dove Medical Press Ltd. This is an Open Access article which permits unrestricted noncommercial use, provided the original work is properly cited. 3867