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Workshop on adverse outcome pathways (AOPs)
Citation:
Lalone, C. AND X. Zhang. Workshop on adverse outcome pathways (AOPs). Adverse Outcome Pathway Workshop, Hong Kong, N/A, HONG KONG, June 10, 2019.
Impact/Purpose:
The workshop we will be teaching focuses on the adverse outcome pathway (AOP) framework, both in terms of development and use. The AOP captures existing knowledge about a biological pathway that can be used for understanding research gaps and regulatory purposes. There have been a number of advances, that have made it easier for more people to become involved in AOP development and use including technologies such as the AOP-Wiki. There have also been efforts to bring a larger community together to develop AOPs. These efforts include global training and interaction with new or potential stakeholders, both describing AOP development and discussing current and planned applications of the AOP framework. This workshop will describe the basic elements of an AOP and resources to learn more about them, as well as describe a few tools that are useful in the context of development and dissemination of AOPs. Finally, the workshop will describe what is being done to engage more stakeholders in the process.
Description:
The adverse outcome pathway (AOP) is a conceptual framework for organizing available biological information to understand how chemical and non-chemical stressors may disrupt biology and lead to adverse health or environmental effects in humans and wildlife. The framework has gained significant international traction since it was initially defined in 2010, particularly in the context of chemical safety. As the framework evolved, it was recognized that both technical and social advances were necessary to accommodate the decision-making needs of multiple stakeholders, including those in biomedical fields. Several workshops held over the years pushed the AOP framework forward in areas including development of clear terminology for AOP descriptions and associated weight of evidence and best practices for development, network analyses, development of quantitative AOPs, development of online collaborative AOP development platforms, and development of case studies working to demonstrate regulatory use of AOPs. These advances have led to new areas of research to advance methods for high-throughput screening and cross-species extrapolation. The AOP-Wiki (aopwiki.org) will be highlighted as a tool for development, review, and storage of AOPs. While tools and the science continue to expand surrounding the AOP framework, important issues challenge the long-term sustainability of the framework, such as narrow contribution to AOP development from a relatively small group of scientists, slow uptake of the use of AOPs in regulatory decision making, time-consuming review and publication of AOPs to name a few. Initiatives have been proposed and are currently being advanced to create greater stakeholder engagement in the AOP framework such as incentivization to contribute to AOP development and broader global AOP training. This workshop will provide the background and hands-on training for proper AOP development.