ABSTRACT
The Community of Special Interest (COSI) in Computational Modelling of Biological Systems (SysMod) brings together interdisciplinary scientists interested in combining data-driven computational modelling, multi-scale mechanistic frameworks, large-scale -omics data and bioinformatics. SysMod's main activity is an annual meeting at the Intelligent Systems for Molecular Biology (ISMB) conference, a meeting for computer scientists, biologists, mathematicians, engineers and computational and systems biologists. The 2021 SysMod meeting was conducted virtually due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic (coronavirus disease 2019). During the 2-day meeting, the development of computational tools, approaches and predictive models was discussed, along with their application to biological systems, emphasizing disease mechanisms. This report summarizes the meeting.
ABSTRACT
We need 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. Here, we describe a large-scale community effort to build an open access, interoperable and computable repository of COVID-19 molecular mechanisms. The COVID-19 Disease Map (C19DMap) 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. To this end, 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 C19DMap, curated from the literature, are integrated with relevant interaction and text mining databases. 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.
Subject(s)
COVID-19/immunology , Computational Biology/methods , Databases, Factual , SARS-CoV-2/immunology , Software , Antiviral Agents/therapeutic use , COVID-19/genetics , COVID-19/virology , Computer Graphics , Cytokines/genetics , Cytokines/immunology , Data Mining/statistics & numerical data , Gene Expression Regulation , Host Microbial Interactions/genetics , Host Microbial Interactions/immunology , Humans , Immunity, Cellular/drug effects , Immunity, Humoral/drug effects , Immunity, Innate/drug effects , Lymphocytes/drug effects , Lymphocytes/immunology , Lymphocytes/virology , Metabolic Networks and Pathways/genetics , Metabolic Networks and Pathways/immunology , Myeloid Cells/drug effects , Myeloid Cells/immunology , Myeloid Cells/virology , Protein Interaction Mapping , SARS-CoV-2/drug effects , SARS-CoV-2/genetics , SARS-CoV-2/pathogenicity , Signal Transduction , Transcription Factors/genetics , Transcription Factors/immunology , Viral Proteins/genetics , Viral Proteins/immunology , COVID-19 Drug TreatmentABSTRACT
An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.