diff --git a/_config.yml b/_config.yml index 7b39a102..88ce48da 100644 --- a/_config.yml +++ b/_config.yml @@ -10,8 +10,7 @@ collections: scientific_leadership_team: strategy_operations_team: scientific_advisory_board: - platform_team: - genetics_team: + product_delivery_team: validation_lab_team: history_timeline: resources: diff --git a/_includes/executive_leadership_team.html b/_includes/executive_leadership_team.html index f8c32f3c..860d452b 100644 --- a/_includes/executive_leadership_team.html +++ b/_includes/executive_leadership_team.html @@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
- The Open Targets Executive Leadership Team (ELT) provides strategic direction for the partnership, + The Open Targets Executive Leadership Team provides strategic direction for the partnership, engages with potential new partners, and oversees the awarding of project grants.
+ The Product Delivery Team is responsible for developing and maintaining our informatics resources and managing their delivery strategy. The team is composed of a diverse and experienced group of individuals with specialised skills in data science, bioinformatics, computer science, web development, statistical genetics, and stakeholder engagement. +
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+- Through our experimental and informatics research programmes, we have funded more that 90 research positions + Through our research programme, we have funded more that 90 research positions within the institutes that we work with and formed teams that engaged many more scientists across industry and academia to improve target identification and prioritisation.
++ One such team is the Validation Lab, which aids the translation of targets identified from our projects to drug discovery through in silico triage, orthogonal verification and mechanistic investigation. The Validation Lab is supported by our partners to ensure close connections with their interests and to increase the changes of target adoption in their drug discovery pipelines. +
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++ The Scientific Advisory Board are a group of well-known individuals from academia and industry that make recommendations to further the success of our partnership. +
- Open Targets is an innovative, large-scale, multi-year, public-private - partnership that uses human genetics and genomics data for systematic drug - target identification and prioritisation. -
-- Visit the Open Targets Platform - which integrates public domain data to enable target identification and - prioritisation, or Open Targets - Genetics which identifies targets based on GWAS and functional - genomics. We complement data integration with large scale systematic experimental approaches - to support target identification, prioritisation and validation. Check out - our latest papers describing our experimental target - identification approaches in oncology, neurodegeneration, and immunity and inflammation. -
-- We are committed to rapid publication and making data, methods and results - publicly available as soon as possible + We are committed to making our data, methods and results + publicly available as soon as possible to foster an open exchange of ideas
We believe in non-exclusive partnerships that foster the free exchange of ideas, expertise, and data @@ -251,20 +207,15 @@
+ The name of our organisaiton in printed publications is "Open Targets". + In our logo, without exception, the name "Open Targets" is placed to the right of, and in a defined ratio to, the Open Targets helix. +
++ You must obtain consent before using the Open Targets logo in any public forum, and the images may not be modified. To do so, or if you require further information or alternative versions of the logo, please contact outreach@opentargets.org. +
++ The logo is made up of two elements: +
+The word and image mark together make up the Open Targets logo. The image mark may be used by itself in certain circumstances. The work mark must not be used by itself.
++ The logo should have free space around it, so that it does not touch adjacent elements or the edges of the screen or page. +
+For information about Open Targets and our research programmes, or to arrange an interview with a member of our team, please outreach@opentargets.org
+If you'd like to keep up-to-date with Open Targets news, you can subscribe to our newsletter and view our past issues.
- Open Targets Genetics - is an open source, comprehensive tool that aggregates human GWAS and functional genomics - data including gene expression, protein abundance, chromatin interaction and conformation - data from a wide range of cell types and tissues to make robust connections between - GWAS-associated loci, variants and likely causal genes. This enables systematic identification - and prioritisation of likely causal variants and genes across all published trait-associated loci. - -
-- To get started with Open Targets Genetics, you can: -
- If you have a question about how to use Open Targets Genetics, want to report a bug or submit a feature request, or are interested in booking a training session, contact us through our Community page. -
- The Genetics Core Team focuses on using human genetics data to guide therapeutic target identification and prioritisation, - inform drug repositioning and predict toxicity effects. The team also maintains the Genetics portal, a first of its kind - tool that enables users to browse, visualise and interpret human genetics and genomics data to unravel the genetic - underpinnings of human diseases and traits and to give insights into disease biology so that this knowledge gets translated - into therapeutic hypothesis. -
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-- Our Platform Team and our - Genetics Team are responsible for maintaining - our informatics resources and tools while our - Project Teams conduct experimental and informatics research and our - Validation Lab Team takes targets identified from - these projects and guides them through further screens to assess suitability - for drug discovery programmes. -
-- And our Scientific Advisory Board are a group of - well-known individuals from academia and industry that make recommendations to further - the sucess of our partnership.
- The Open Targets Platform is a - comprehensive, open source research tool - that supports systematic identification and prioritisation of potential therapeutic drug targets. The Platform integrates - publicly available datasets - and data generated by Open Targets to build and score - target-disease associations. - It also includes relevant annotation information about targets, diseases, phenotypes, and drugs. -
-- To get started with the Platform, you can: -
- If you have a question about how to use the Open Targets Platform, want to report a bug or submit a feature request, or are interested in booking - a training session, contact us through our Community page. -
- The Open Targets Platform Core Team is an experienced group of individuals with specialised skills in - bioinformatics, computer science, web development, user experience design, and scientific outreach - and training. -
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-+ We bring these approaches together in an integrated pre-competitive research programme. +
We consider target selection to encompass two key steps, target identification and target prioritisation. Target identification defines targets with significant associations to the disease biology. Target prioritisation @@ -36,97 +38,33 @@
- We have developed a portfolio of experimental projects designed to provide new information in our key therapy areas - to enable target identification and prioritisation. We generate target-centred data in human, physiologically relevant - systems to improve the strength of causal links between targets and diseases in our focus therapeutic areas of Oncology, - Immunity and Inflammation and Neurodegeneration. We combine whole genome approaches and high throughput methods to - address the full range of relevant targets in disease most relevant cellular systems. We use the expertise of all our - partners in emerging and established technologies including: + Our research programme generates and analyses data to connect targets to diseases, assess the strength of this evidence, and help identify and prioritise targets for drug discovery. This includes evidence that causally links targets and diseases, as well as foundational data that helps us understand biological processes and disease progression more deeply. +
++ Within the research programme, we combine whole genome approaches and high throughput methods to address the full range of relevant targets in disease in the most relevant cellular systems. We use the expertise of all our partners in emerging and established technologies, focusing on three therapy areas to generate new understanding:
- Our projects in Oncology utilise resources and expertise within the Wellcome Sanger Institute's - Cancer, Ageing and Somatic Mutations Program, - which has played an important role in understanding the genetic basis of cancer. A shared theme is the use of accessible cancer - resources to curate and analyse clinical genomic datasets to identify driver genes (mutations, amplification, deletions - and gene fusions) across multiple cancer sub-types. A key resource is the unique collection of >1000 human cancer cell - lines at the Sanger Institute along with their drug sensitivities. Genomic information including RNA-seq and synthetic - lethality from genome editing in model systems that best reflect the biology of tumours can identify many new target - opportunities as exemplified in - Behan et al 2019. We are expanding our gene editing approaches to both tumour based cancer targets for instance by - identifying potential combination targets, and immuno-oncology targets by identifying targets that modify the tumour - microenvironment or alter cell killing in co-culture. -
-- We focus on explaining the genetic basis of immune-mediated diseases including inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and SLE where there - is a strong interest from our partners and expertise on the Genome Campus. We developed a state of the art meta-analysis for the - existing IBD cohorts, and we are moving candidate targets into CRISPR-cas9 knockouts in gut epithelium organoids for validation. - In addition, we are generating eQTL datasets including at the single cell level that can be used to resolve the causal genes at - loci implicated from genetics for IBD and SLE. We are probing the roles of targets either in well-defined immune cells through - gene editing and single cell transcriptomics and epigenetic profiling (for instance in microglia, macrophages, dendritic cells and - T cells in response to various stimulations, - or in disease such as asthma using single cell genomics. - We also have projects that intersect with oncology including identification of receptor ligand pairs in NK cells with application to - immuno-oncology as well as intersections with the role of the immune system in neurodegenerative disease. -
-- In Neurodegeneration we are using the collective expertise of our partners and through collaboration with UCL and the Cambridge Dementia - Research Institute we have built a set of projects based on the use of iPSC derived neurons particularly in Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. - These projects use CRISPR-cas9 gene editing to identify modifiers of the response to oxidative stress, mechanisms of Tau uptake and the - effects of Alzheimer's disease specific mutations in neurons. We also characterise these neurons using single cell transcriptomics. We have - established protocols for similar analysis of enteric and sensory neurons including the effect of rare monogenic mutations - for pain. We are using fine mapping of GWAS in Alzheimer’s (AD) and Parkinson’s (PD) disease to identify and test potential targets in the - same neuron systems and using functional approaches to model the effect of common variants on relevant phenotypes. -
-- The recent discovery of the relevance of neuroinflammation in neurodegeneration has led us to develop projects at the intersection with - immunity and inflammation. We have profiled microglia from trauma patients for eQTLs,and are using IPSc-derived microglia for genetic and - gene editing screens. -
- Finally, we have recently started to profile the effect of chromatin modifying mutations of neural progenitor cells and neurons, focussing - on targets identified in the - Deciphering Developmental Disorders project. +
Something about Open Targets projects
+Something about Validation Lab
+ Take a look at our publications to read about our recent work. -Our core bioinformatics work focusses on bringing together the various, relevant data on targets to allow simple and seamless exploration by drug discovery scientists. We cover many data types relevant to human disease biology and target identification using the expertise from @@ -136,39 +74,23 @@
Our overall approach to target identification and prioritisation is brought to life in the Open Targets Platform, which integrates public data relevant to the association - between targets and diseases, and provides additional data and tools for prioritisation. The Platform was developed together with scientists - from our partners through a user experience (UX) design process. We integrate data from genetics, somatic mutations, expression analysis, - drugs, animal models and the literature through robust pipelines and assess the association of a target with disease in a single score. User - friendly interfaces are used to guide the user in target identification and allowing access to the evidence. In addition, prioritisation - information is provided by target tractability assessments, safety data, gene expression information, and other target - properties. The Platform is updated every 2 months and - data is accessible through - an intuitive web interface, a robust API, a Google BigQuery instance, and a comprehensive list of dataset downloads. The Platform is - an open source project and will continue to - evolve as we bring new features and data to bear. + between targets and diseases, and provides additional data and tools for prioritisation. +
++ The Platform is an open source project and will continue to + evolve as we bring new features and data to bear. Explore the Platform at platform.opentargets.org.
- Given the enhanced success of drugs targeting genetically validated targets in clinical trials, we have enhanced the use of human genetics - information in target selection. We developed Open Targets Genetics - to provide causal target assignments underlying each association for Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS). The portal was initially released - at the American Society of Human Genetics conference in October 2018. It supports searches that start with a gene, a single variant, a single - study (trait), or multiple studies and users can also - download the data - generated for each release. Collaborative work with the GWAS catalog - allows us to include data from genome-wide summary statistics including UK Biobank. Open Targets Genetics now also includes workflows to identify - candidate causal variants and to analyse colocalization of GWAS and eQTL signals from the new - eQTL Catalogue to assist in identifying causal genes. - Finally we have developed a machine learning model to assign each association at a locus to the most likely causal gene based on integrated genetics and - functional genomics data. The Open Targets Platform receives its common disease genetics information from Open Targets Genetics, while exporting - links for gene and drug information to the Genetics portal. + We developed Open Targets Genetics + to provide causal target assignments underlying each association for Genome Wide Association Studies (GWAS). Notably, Open Targets Genetics features a machine learning model to assign each association at a locus to the most likely causal gene based on integrated genetics and functional genomics data; this analysis is one of the sources of genetic evidence in the Open Targets Platform. Explore Open Targets Genetics at genetics.opentargets.org.
Additional ancillary projects in the area of bioinformatics include development of the eQTL Catalogue, network analysis for drug target list expansion, and enhanced data for the Open Targets Platform, including additional data from clinical trial records and data - on the effect of mutations on protein function. We also release and support standalone informatics tools associated with our various - projects. + on the effect of mutations on protein function. We also release and support standalone informatics tools associated with our various + projects. Explore our informatics tools.
- The Open Targets Validation Lab aids the translation of targets identified from our other efforts to drug - discovery through in silico triage, orthogonal verification and mechanistic investigation. The Validation - Lab is supported by our partners to ensure close connections with their interests - and to increase the chances of target adoption in their drug discovery pipelines. -
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