Collaborative project will make bioassay information available in a FAIR Format

The Pistoia Alliance, a global, not-for-profit alliance that works to lower barriers to innovation in life science and healthcare R&D, has completed the pilot phase of the DataFAIRy: Bioassay project. This collaborative project aims to make bioassay information available in a FAIR format to increase the efficiency of bench scientists engaged in experiment planning and enable research that otherwise requires tedious expert literature review.

The goals of the pilot included:

• Establishing a process and technology to efficiently curate and reliably extract high-quality biological assay protocol information and metadata contained in research publications into a machine-readable FAIR format.
• Validate an approach and data model (or models) for communication and publication of the annotation metadata.
• Provide recommended standards and guidelines for the acceptance and publication of bioassay data.
• Scope and propose a follow-on project to deliver high-quality annotations at a larger scale.

The DataFAIRy project team, consisting of Pistoia Alliance members drawn from organizations including AstraZeneca, BMS, Roche/Genentech, and Novartis, conducted a competitive technology assessment and selected BioHarmony: Annotator from Collaborative Drug Discovery (CDD) as the technology platform for bioassay textual analysis and annotation based on terms from public ontologies.

Following the annotation work and an extensive QC process, the DataFAIRy team is preparing a series of recommendations for bioassay annotation standards, the disclosure of bioassay information, and alignment with ontology maintenance organizations and other standards and practices groups.

A selection of high-quality results from assays curated under this pilot project can be viewed as part of individual PubChem records or collectively as the "Pistoia Classification Tree" in the PubChem Classification Browser.

The Pistoia Alliance is currently planning the next phase of the DataFAIRy:Bioassay project, with the objectives of scaling up the annotation process and developing of community-accepted standards for the bioassay metadata. To get involved with the project, contact Pistoia Alliance Project Manager Vladimir Markarov.

About the Pistoia Alliance

The Pistoia Alliance is a global, not-for-profit members' organization made up of life science companies, technology, and service providers, publishers, and academic groups working to lower barriers to innovation in life science and healthcare R&D. It was conceived in 2007 and incorporated in 2009 by representatives of AstraZeneca, GSK, Novartis and Pfizer who met at a conference in Pistoia, Italy. Its projects transform R&D through pre-competitive collaboration. It overcomes common R&D obstacles by identifying the root causes, developing standards and best practices, sharing pre-competitive data and knowledge, and implementing technology pilots. There are currently over 150 member companies; members collaborate on projects that generate significant value for the worldwide life sciences R&D community, using The Pistoia Alliance's proven framework for open innovation.

About Collaborative Drug Discovery, Inc.

CDD's (www.collaborativedrug.com) goal is to advance science through better data management. It's flagship product, CDD Vault®, is a hosted informatics solution that allows researchers to organize data and experiments and securely collaborate in real-time. CDD also offers the BioHarmony™ Drug Data Store, providing semantic data on preclinical, clinical, and post-approval developments. In addition, CDD has developed a FAIR assay annotation platform based on its proprietary technologies.

Media Contacts:
Tanya Randall
The Pistoia Alliance
+44 7887 811332
tanya.randall@pistoiaalliance.org