Precision Medicine

The CIAO project aims to address a pressing issue in COVID 19 research: Making sense of the overwhelming flood of information that is published every day. To achieve this, CIAO makes use of the Adverse Outcome Pathways (AOPs), which are part of a well-established knowledge collection and management framework in toxicology. Based on published work, the AOPs depict the causal relationships that link an initial perturbation (virus binding to a receptor) over a series of biological key events that can be measured toward an adverse outcome, such as respiratory distress or multiorgan failure. Developing AOPs modelling COVID-19 pathogenesis relies on interdisciplinary collaborative effort, synergizing exchange between experts from different fields. Currently, more than 65 scientists around the world are participating in the project.

The COVID-19 Disease Map is a graphical, interactive representation of disease-relevant molecular mechanisms linking many knowledge sources. Notably, it is a computational resource for graph-based analyses and disease modelling. With this effort, we aim to effectively combine the knowledge from surging literature with complex datasets to propose mechanistic models of SARS-CoV-2 infection, improving data interpretation and predicting key targets of intervention. This large-scale community effort allowed to build an open access, interoperable and computable repository of COVID-19 molecular mechanisms. We established a framework of tools, platforms and guidelines necessary for a multifaceted community of biocurators, domain experts, bioinformaticians and computational biologists. The diagrams of the Map, curated from the literature, are integrated with relevant interaction and text mining databases.In our recent publication we demonstrate the application of network analysis and modelling approaches by concrete examples to highlight new testable hypotheses. This framework helps to find signatures of SARS-CoV-2 predisposition, treatment response or prioritisation of drug candidates. Such an approach may help deal with new waves of COVID-19 or similar pandemics in the long-term perspective.

An IMI funded project focused on COVID diagnostics, prediction, and prognostics. Emphasis is on the use of AI to interpret images as well as transcriptomic profiles. The consortium also include an app provider that enables patient/clinician/researcher partnering with both data capture and educational modules. The project includes seven SMEs, ten academic, one professional society, and a disease foundation.

The ERS Clinical Research Collaborations (CRC) programme provides support to projects in different areas of respiratory medicine, to build and maintain European multi-centre networks of researchers, from both within and outside of the Society.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, numerous COVID-19 research initiatives have been launched. To date, these strategies have primarily focused on the acute infection and not the long-term consequences. The ambition of the CRC END-COVID – European respiratory Network for Data-sharing in COVID19, is to study the consequences of COVID-19 infection, particularly in those who have been hospitalised. To maximise the impact of the effort invested in clinical data collection and research and to minimise duplication of work and offer better and faster answers to medical needs, END-COVID aims to align and, where possible, merge different national initiatives in Europe studying the long-term effects of COVID-19 in those post-hospitalisation survivors. END-COVID will study the impact on those with premorbid lung conditions and the onset of de novo lung disease and co-morbidities. The long-term vision of the END-COVID CRC is to build an integration platform that would allow any researcher to have access to the data to answer COVID-19 related research questions, once approved by END-COVID CRC Steering Committee and Data Controllers. END-COVID is chaired by Dr. Stefano Aliberti (University of Milan) and Dr. Claudia Valenzuela (University of Madrid).

KRONO aims to deliver a simple diagnostic tests that is called At Patient Testing (APT) and test the patient while they wait using gold standard qRT-PCR technology and would deliver results in under 40 minute. The test based on a novel platform technology able to work with unprocessed samples of blood, saliva, or nose or throat swabs and can be operated by anyone with basic training in how to use the device. The software is based on algorithms trained on actual clinical data, and allows users to easily interpret the results. No laboratory or trained personnel required, this means that the portable system can be deployed in the field, at entry points to countries an in the community to minimize transmission of infection.

While the team is focusing its efforts on the current COVID-19 outbreak, they also plan to ensure the system can be easily adapted to future outbreaks of new diseases in humans as well as animals.

A group of asthma centers focused on childhood asthma. The focus is to achieve biomarker driven care for individuals with asthma. The alliance consists of nine academic centers.

One of the original Innovative Medicines Initiative funded projects that continues to work together eight years after the funding period. Consists of five major pharma, eleven academic institutions and three SMEs