Core Concepts
The COVID-19 Disease Map is a large-scale community effort to build an open-access, interoperable, and computable repository of COVID-19 molecular mechanisms, supporting data analysis and predictive modelling.
Abstract
The COVID-19 Disease Map is a collaborative effort involving over 230 biocurators, domain experts, modellers and data analysts from 120 institutions in 30 countries. It aims to build a comprehensive, machine-readable repository of curated computational diagrams and models of molecular mechanisms implicated in COVID-19.
The key aspects of the COVID-19 Disease Map include:
Creation and curation of systems biology diagrams by biocurators, following standardized encoding and annotation schemes. The diagrams cover key events in the SARS-CoV-2 infectious cycle and host response, including viral entry and replication, host defense mechanisms, immune response, and metabolic pathways.
Integration of relevant knowledge from public databases, interaction repositories, and text mining resources to enrich and validate the curated mechanisms. This allows the Map to be continuously updated as new scientific evidence emerges.
Ensuring interoperability of the diagrams through the use of layout-aware systems biology formats (SBML, SBGNML, GPML), enabling computational analysis and modelling workflows.
Demonstration of analytical and modelling approaches using the contents of the Map, including network analysis, transcription factor activity profiling, and mechanistic pathway modelling. These workflows generate hypotheses and predictions about the underlying COVID-19 mechanisms.
The COVID-19 Disease Map is a constantly evolving resource, serving as a comprehensive computational repository of SARS-CoV-2 virus-host interaction mechanisms. It supports data interpretation, hypothesis generation, and in silico experimentation, with the potential to identify molecular signatures of disease predisposition and suggest drug repositioning for improved treatments.
Stats
"SARS-CoV-2 infection already resulted in the infection of over 106 million people worldwide, of whom 2.3 million have died."
"The COVID-19 Disease Map is a collection of 41 diagrams containing 1836 interactions between 5499 elements, supported by 617 publications and preprints."
Quotes
"The COVID-19 Disease Map is a constantly evolving resource, refined and updated by ongoing efforts of biocuration, sharing and analysis."
"The COVID-19 Disease Map diagrams are the main building blocks of the Map, composed of biochemical reactions and interactions (altogether called interactions) taking place between different types of molecular entities in various cellular compartments."