We hold the first Datathon of the COMMUTE project

Members of the COMMUTE project have gathered at the Barcelonaβeta Brain Research Center (BBRC), research center of the Pasqual Maragall Foundation, for its first Datathon, a collaborative initiative designed to foster interdisciplinary teamwork between researchers in clinical and cellular sciences and researchers in AI and data sciences. During this hands-on workshop, which took place on 03-04 February, participants of the consortium have examined how data-driven and hypothesis-driven approaches can combine to unravel the risk of neurodegenerative disease comorbidities linked to COVID-19 infection. The event was organized by the BBRC, the Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC-CNS) and Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft.

Through the harmonization and integration of the COMMUTE Knowledge Graphs with AI models, and by examining the correlation between curated molecular and clinical datasets from patients with neurodegenerative diseases and COVID-19, as well as organoid models, participants have proposed a strategic direction to advance the consortium's goal of identifying shared mechanisms between COVID-19 and neurodegenerative diseases. Teams were assigned to tackle specific challenges and received access to datasets and a toolbox of bioinformatics and literature resources.

About COMMUTE

The EU-funded study COMMUTE (COMmorbidity Mechanisms UTilized in HealthcarE) analyzes the underlying mechanisms linking COVID-19 infections with neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Identifying and understanding these potential links will help pinpointing high-risk groups and establishing new paths for innovative approaches to disease prevention.

Funded with 7.3 million euros by the European Commission, the project runs until November 2027. 
More information can be found at https://www.commute-project.eu