The Environmental Health Language Collaborative (EHLC) Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) Standards Workshop Report

The Environmental Health Language Collaborative (EHLC), established in 2021, is a community of practice dedicated to advancing environmental health research by promoting standardized language to achieve harmonized datasets and interoperable tools. EHLC works through several mechanisms, including holding different events to communicate progress and discuss issues, hosting working groups to advance solutions, and conducting webinars and workshops. The recent EHLC AOP Standards two-day workshop served as a platform to connect the Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) community with other aligned groups, including the Biomedical Knowledge Graph, New Approach Methodologies (NAMs), Artificial Intelligence and Natural Language Processing (AI/NLP), Human Exposome, and the Data Sharing and Standards communities. With many emerging activities across the biomedical and AOP domains, EHLC is fostering collaboration and knowledge exchange among them. The workshop aimed to raise awareness, enhance alignment across communities, and gather insights to guide future efforts—particularly in improving knowledge and data generation, and advancing the automated and semi-automated integration of biomedical and related human health data with AOPs.

Impact/Purpose

A workshop global project was organized to promote collaboration between the international AOP community and the US-based biomedical knowledgebase and ontology communities and to promote the FAIR data standards of AOPs.   Coordination of relevant research that contributes to improved AOP data standards was discussed at an international workshop in June 2025, hosted by the NIH Environmental Health Language Collaborative (EHLC).   A diverse set of scientists and stakeholders participated in the two-day workshop.   Approaches to improved data integration, interoperability, and mechanistic insight were discussed.   Recommendations and next steps for improvements to the mapping of biomedical data to AOPs in the AOP-Wiki are presented.

Citation

Mortensen, H., V. Hench, P. Nymark, S. Lynn, H. Hogberg, M. Feshuk, A. Thessen, D. Hines, S. Moxon, K. Fecho, N. Tucker, A. Tropsha, J. Balhoff, J. Fostel, H. Caufield, J. Filipovska, A. Davis, J. Malinowska, V. Kumar, M. Martens, H. Bledsoe, G. Chappell, S. Hall, M. Shatz, AND C. Schmitt. The Environmental Health Language Collaborative (EHLC) Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) Standards Workshop Report. In Proceedings, Environmental Health Language Collective (EHLC) Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) Standards Workshop, RTP (virtual), NC, June 04 - 05, 2025 F1000 Research Ltd, London, UK, 323, (2026). [DOI: 10.12688/f1000research.175826.1]

DOI: The Environmental Health Language Collaborative (EHLC) Adverse Outcome Pathway (AOP) Standards Workshop Report