24.2.2022
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
L 45/1395 COMMISSION PILOT PROJECTS
CHAPTER PP 01 — RESEARCH AND INNOVATION (cont'd) PP 01 22
(cont'd)
PP 01 22 01
(cont'd) Remarks
The overall objective of this pilot project is to create the first Union public database of human biology- based models and non-animal methods, providing open access to the scientific community with project evaluators and ethical review committees among others.
Roughly 10 million animals are used in procedures for research and testing across the Union each year and about 200 million worldwide.
In 2017, the Commission’s Joint Research Centre - European Union Reference Laboratory for alternatives to animal testing (DG JRC EURL ECVAM) embarked on a series of studies to review available and emerging non-animal models (NAM) being used for research in seven disease areas: 1) respiratory tract diseases 2) breast cancer 3) immune-oncology 4) immunogenicity of advanced therapeutic medicinal products 5) neurodegenerative disorders, 6) cardiovascular diseases and 7) autoimmunity.
In 2020, the two first studies (on respiratory tract diseases and breast cancer) were published while the others were expected to follow in 2021.
In spite of this remarkable effort, this work is in danger of quickly becoming outdated, given that the rapid increase in knowledge is accompanied by a decrease in the useful lifespan of that knowledge.
Therefore, the aim of this pilot project is to develop an artificial intelligence (AI) automated database that collects and structures the NAMs in use for biomedical research.
NAMs correspond to in vitro methods based on human cells and engineered tissues or in silico approaches employing computer modelling and simulation.
Using AI to mine the vast body of published literature enables the creation and maintenance of an up-to-date, state of the art knowledge source collating NAMs applied to biomedical research.
Moreover, the AI approach will allow the development of a sustainable design and implementation of the platform, which can be easily maintained by a third party and further refine through a community based support.
By understanding and sharing information on successful NAMs in biomedical research, it is expected that the transition of the scientific community towards human biology-based methodologies will be encouraged, facilitated and potentially accelerated.
In fact, the use of human biology-based models and methods is vital to improve the relevance of biomedical research, to enhance the likelihood that results will translate to patients and to accelerate the transfer of research results into clinical and public health practices.
The use of AI is vital for the automation and cost-effective retrieval of the huge amount of data which will be required to ensure that the knowledge remains updated and current.
In fact, the application of AI has already proven its worth and is frequently used by Union institutions such as EFSA for the automation of evidence-based science.
Objectives:
Ultimately, this pilot project will result in the development of the first Union public database of human biology-based NAM for biomedical research.
This will be achieved through the following: — Combining the results of the existing seven studies from DG JRC EURL ECVAM to create an initial database.
— Applying these results to enable training of an AI-boosted algorithm that will further populate the database and ensure it is kept up-to-date. — Designing further integrations to expand the database to include NAMs for other human diseases. — Developing a user-friendly web interface to facilitate public searches of content and allow filtering for NAM for specific human diseases.