Collaboration, community, and sharing data

Visitors who stopped by the Douglas Connect booth at SOT 2018 got more than the sales demo that is typical at such trade fairs. Instead, Douglas Connect, known for its focus on collaboration and community, offered its visitors a session of free data counselling. “We wanted people to come and explain their problems,” says Dr. Frank Hollinger, Vice-President of Corporate Operations, Americas.“ We were then able to draw their workflows and help them spot the critical connections that can support their work.”

“With this new approach, we were able to offer solutions to visitors similar to the AOP-based prediction model of ITS SkinSens and developments done in OpenRiskNet,” says Dr. Thomas Exner, Douglas Connect’s Chief Scientific Officer.

ITS SkinSens is the Integrated Testing Strategy for skin sensitisation that Douglas Connect developed with and for Procter & Gamble (P&G). OpenRiskNet is an EU-supported Capacities building project for Open e-Infrastructure to Support Data Sharing, Knowledge Integration and in silico Analysis and Modelling in Safety Assessment, and is coordinated by Douglas Connect. “OpenRiskNet offers a way for companies to tap into live data through a common querying interface,” says Dr. Hollinger. Both ventures are indicative of Douglas Connect’s focus on collaboration and innovation. “Douglas Connect founded OpenTox, so collaboration is part of our DNA,” says Dr. Barry Hardy, CEO, Douglas Connect.

View ITS and OpenRiskNet posters presented  at SOT-ToxExpo 2018: 

• OpenRiskNet, an Open e-infrastructure to Support Data Sharing, Knowledge Integration and In Silico Analaysis and Modeling in Risk Assessment 
• An Integrated Testing Strategy for Quantitative Skin Sensitization Risk Assessment by Integration of Multiple In Vitro Assays Using Bayesian Networks and Accounting for Bioavailability 

In addition to OpenTox and OpenRiskNet, Douglas Connect’s development of ITS SkinSens shows the company’s strength in collaborative projects. “P&G had developed a quality approach, but the data analysis system was specific to their needs,” explains Dr. Exner. “We developed an integrated and extensible application based on their data and methodology and made it securely available – which has benefited P&G and the entire toxicological community."

Another example is the proposal that won Douglas Connect a place in the 2017 CRACK IT DART Paths competition sponsored by Shell and Syngenta. This project, to build a developmental and reproductive toxicology (DART) knowledge infrastructure platform, aims to allow the toxicology community to work together to limit animal testing.

Toxicology depends on diverse data sets and standard approaches to managing this data are unworkable.

Douglas Connect's solutions harmonize the different data types that scientists need. In February, Dr. Hardy’s presentation at the National Academy of Science workshop on environmental health raised this very issue: “We need to provide feedback to subsequent research iterations on knowledge gaps and data filling to reduce uncertainty. And improve models of toxicokinetics and toxicodynamics responses. The work to prepare high-quality datasets and related metadata has a clear return on investment downstream in data integration, analysis and risk assessment.”

“Companies are understandably worried about sharing data, but they are now moving towards the idea that socializing their data is beneficial. We bring the optimal organization to help them do that,” says Dr. Exner.

SOT 2018 brought some 6,800 toxicologists and 350 toxicology-related exhibitors together to work towards Toxicology for the 21st Century. “SOT featured over 160 exciting sessions - it was a good place to get the latest thinking on toxicological research and to talk with members of the community about the knowledge integration required to reliably solve practical workflow problems in both research and assessment,” says Dr. Hardy.