Providing Reproducible Simulation Studies Targeting COVID-19 Through BioModels and B2SHARE

Modeling and simulation rapidly gains significance for experimental design and result analysis in biomedicine. As recently observed with the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, models offer rational predictions for epidemiological systems behaviour, for potential interventions such as antiviral therapies, and as tools for education and information dissemination (e.g., explaining what is “flattening the curve”. It is now important to quickly provide reproducible and reusable models to the scientific community.

The ultimate goal of this project is to rapidly disseminate simulation studies of COVID-19 models to the research community, in interoperable formats and in high quality. Greifswald will actively approach modelers and offer support in making model code COMBINE-compliant. BioModels will provide additional curation services focussed on COVID-19 related studies and link models with additional resources; thus making models better accessible, enabling epidemiologists to further assess applicability to COVID-19 and to other potential disease outbreaks. A software developer will support rapid updates of COMBINE libraries, and an experienced modeler will help with polishing model code.

With the funding received from EOSC we will establish a novel workflow for fast track curation of data. We are convinced that this will boost the use of simulation models for prediction of disease progression and disease cause and thus contribute to identifying targets for therapy as well as setting the path to new analysis tools and educational resources.