CIAO: a living experiment in interdisciplinary large-scale collaboration facilitated by the Adverse Outcome Pathway framework

Introduction: The CIAO project was launched in Spring 2020 to address the need to make sense of the numerous and disparate data available on COVID-19 pathogenesis. Based on a crowdsourcing model of large-scale collaboration, the project has exploited the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) knowledge management framework built to support chemical risk assessment driven by mechanistic understanding of the biological perturbations at the different organizational levels. Hence the AOPs might have real potential to integrate data produced through different approaches and from different disciplines as experienced in the context of COVID-19. In this study, we aim to address the effectiveness of the AOP framework (i) in supporting an interdisciplinary collaboration for a viral disease and (ii) in working as the conceptual mediator of a crowdsourcing model of collaboration.

Methods: We used a survey disseminated among the CIAO participants, a workshop open to all interested CIAO contributors, a series of interviews with some participants and a self-reflection on the processes.

Results: The project has supported genuine interdisciplinarity with exchange of knowledge. The framework provided a common reference point for discussion and collaboration. The diagram used in the AOPs assisted with making explicit what are the different perspectives brought to the knowledge about the pathways. The AOP-Wiki showed up many aspects about its usability for those not already in the world of AOPs. Meanwhile their use in CIAO highlighted needed adaptations. Introduction of new Wiki elements for modulating factors was potentially the most disruptive one. Regarding how well AOPs support a crowdsourcing model of large-scale collaboration, the CIAO project showed that this is successful when there is a strong central organizational impetus and when clarity about the terms of the collaboration is brought as early as possible.

Discussion: Extrapolate the successful CIAO approach and related processes to other areas of science where the AOP could foster interdisciplinary and systematic organization of the knowledge is an exciting perspective.