Abstract Given the multiplicity of nanoparticles (NPs) there is a requirement to develop screening strategies to evaluate their toxicity. Within the EU-funded FP7 NanoTEST project, a panel of medically relevant NPs has been used to develop alternative testing strategies of NPs used in medical diagnostics. As conventional toxicity tests cannot necessarily be directly applied to NPs in the same manner as for soluble chemicals and drugs, we determined the extent of interference of NPs with each assay process and components. In this study we fully characterized the panel of NP suspensions used in this project (PLGA-PEO, TiO2, SiO2, uncoated and oleic acid coated Fe3O4) and showed that many NP characteristics (composition, size, coatings, and agglomeration) interfere with a range of in vitro cytotoxicity assays (WST-1, MTT, lactate dehydrogenase, neutral red, propidium iodide, 3H-Tymidine incorporation, cell counting), pro-inflammatory response evaluation (ELISA for GM-CSF, IL-6 and IL-8), and oxidative stress detection (monoBromoBimane, dichlorofluorescein, NO assays). Interferences were assay specific as well as NP specific. We propose how to integrate and avoid interferences with testing systems as a first step of a screening strategy for biomedical NPs.