What Data Exists for a Given Chemical/Endpoint/Exposure Scenario?
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The lack of a common language has proven a barrier for toxicology research and practice by limiting the ability of researchers and policy makers to find data, to compare across study findings, to integrate study data, and to construct data to support computational modeling and knowledge discovery. To address this challenge, the NIEHS and partners are working to establish an Environmental Health Language Collaborative, which is a community-driven initiative to advance the development and application of harmonized language approaches within environmental health and toxicology. The Collaborative is currently organized around five initial use cases focused on discovery of exposure-specific data sets, integration of exposure data from multiple studies, bridging exposure to biology, identification of biomarkers of exposures, and describing place-based exposures. The process of community building started at a recent workshop held September 9-10, 2021 titled Catalyzing Knowledge-Driven Discovery in Environmental Health Sciences through a Harmonized Language. The first track of the workshop focused on formulating an approach to develop a sustainable and impactful environmental health sciences language community. The second track was dedicated to making progress on the initial use cases. This presentation will provide an overview of the proposed Collaborative and summary of the recent workshop, with the goal to align this initiative with other individual and group efforts. In addition, the presentation will highlight three use cases: discovery of exposure-specific data sets, utilization of biomarkers to monitor exposure events, and the connection of those events to biological responses.