Open Targets
Welcome to The Hyve and elevate your drug discovery process with the Open Targets target platform and genetics portal—essential tools for identifying and validating drug targets. The Open Targets Platform is a powerful, open-source web tool that seamlessly integrates diverse data sources, providing comprehensive insights at your fingertips. Furthermore, with the Open Targets Genetics Portal, you can unlock groundbreaking associations between genes, variants, and traits using GWAS data, revolutionising your approach to target discovery.
The Hyve initiated collaboration with the Open Targets consortium in 2018 and has been actively contributing to the code base, managing multiple private Open Targets installations worldwide.
Open Targets is a comprehensive, open-source platform that supports drug discovery by integrating and visualising large-scale biological data. It provides researchers powerful tools to identify and validate potential therapeutic targets, leveraging genomic, transcriptomic, and clinical data.
Open Targets combines multiple high-quality data types, including genomics, transcriptomics, and clinical data, into a single platform. This integration allows researchers to gain a holistic view of potential drug targets and their associations with diseases, facilitating more informed decision-making in the drug discovery process.
The platform is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, even for those without extensive bioinformatics expertise. With its web-based interface, researchers can effortlessly navigate and analyse complex datasets, making them accessible to a broader range of users and accelerating the target discovery process.
As an open-source platform, Open Targets encourages collaboration and innovation within the scientific community. Researchers can contribute to and benefit from the continuous development of new features. Additionally, its flexible data model allows for integrating sophisticated data visualisations, making it adaptable to various research needs and enhancing its utility in diverse scientific contexts.
We deliver a robust and secure platform for managing your proprietary biomedical data. We ensure your data remains secure by deploying Open Targets directly on your infrastructure. Our solution includes advanced authorization, allowing you to manage access to sensitive information precisely.
Streamline your research with our comprehensive data-loading services. We handle everything from integrating GWAS and QTL data into the Open Targets Genetics Portal to importing diverse target-disease datasets into the Open Target Platform. Our expert team ensures your data is accurately and efficiently loaded, freeing you from the technical complexities and allowing you to focus on deriving actionable insights.
We are committed to continuously advancing our capabilities to meet your specific needs. Whenever you encounter a use case not currently supported by Open Targets, our dedicated team of developers can create new functionalities tailored precisely to your requirements. Visit our blogs for detailed examples of our latest advancements and custom solutions.
We offer specialized end-user training designed to help you fully leverage the power of Open Targets. Our training programs are meticulously tailored to your specific use cases and datasets, ensuring that you can make the most of the platform’s capabilities. Additionally, we provide comprehensive data-loading training, equipping your team with the skills to manage and input data efficiently. By combining practical insights with hands-on instruction, our training ensures that your organization can utilize Open Targets to their full potential, driving impactful research and target identification.
We offer expert consultancy to help your organisation unlock the full potential of Open Targets. By understanding your specific goals and challenges, we provide tailored recommendations that enhance data synergy, streamline workflows, and maximise the impact of Open Targets in your research and data management efforts.
Harness the power of Open Targets without needing extensive bioinformatics skills. Our services make it easy to access and utilize the wealth of data integrated within Open Targets, enabling you to gain deeper insights effortlessly.
Enhance the Open Targets platform by integrating your proprietary data within a secure, in-house installation. The Hyve enables you to enrich the platform with private datasets while ensuring data security, allowing you to harness the platform’s analytical capabilities fully.
Features developed for our clients or within the Open Targets consortium are available to everyone, fostering a collaborative environment where innovation thrives.
We extend the Open Targets platform with sophisticated data visualizations through its flexible data model. We customize the platform to meet your unique needs, enhancing your target validation process and driving success in drug discovery.
Open to All: The public Open Targets portal is freely accessible to anyone with an internet connection. Researchers, academics, and the general public can use the platform without any access restrictions.
Community-driven Resource: It is maintained by the Open Targets consortium, which includes contributions from various global research entities, making it a collaborative and open research tool.
Pre-configured Environment: The public portal offers a standardized set of features and tools to cater to a wide range of drug discovery and genomic research users.
General Dataset Availability: Users can explore a wide array of datasets relevant to target identification, prioritization, and validation, all curated and made available by the Open Targets team.
Academic and Public Research: Ideal for researchers in academia, independent scientists, and any global community member looking to generate and validate hypotheses using public data.
Collaborative and Open Research: The platform facilitates open science and collaborative projects where data sharing and accessibility are critical.
Free Access: The public portal is provided at no cost, making it an accessible resource for anyone interested in drug discovery and related research areas.
Tailored Configuration: A private instance can be customized to include specific tools, workflows, and datasets that align with the organization's unique research objectives.
Corporate and Proprietary Research: This setup is ideal for pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, and research organizations focusing on proprietary research, drug target identification, and validation within a secure environment.
Internal Collaboration: It supports collaboration within an organization while keeping all data and research outcomes secure from external access.
Investment Required: Setting up and maintaining a private deployment involves costs for infrastructure and customization. However, since Open Targets is open-source, clients do not need to pay any licensing fees for its use, though certain specialized tools or datasets may still incur additional costs.
A typical use case for Open Targets involves drug target identification and prioritization. Here’s an example scenario:
A pharmaceutical company is interested in developing a new therapeutic drug for Type 2 Diabetes (T2D). The research team needs to identify and prioritize potential drug targets—genes or proteins that, when modulated, could have a therapeutic effect on the disease.
Query the Disease: The research team starts by querying "Type 2 Diabetes" in the Open Targets platform. The platform directs to the associated genes page, which contains a list of genes associated with T2D, each annotated with evidence from various biological sources, including genome-wide association studies (GWAS), expression data, and literature.
Review Genetic Associations: The team reviews the genetic associations for each gene. For instance, genes with strong GWAS evidence or those implicated in multiple studies may be prioritized for further investigation.
Functional Data Integration: The platform integrates data on gene expression, protein interactions, and pathways. The team can see how high a gene is expressed in tissues relevant to T2D (like pancreatic tissue) or its role in insulin signaling pathways.
Score and Rank Targets: Using Open Targets’ scoring system, the team ranks the genes based on the strength and breadth of the evidence supporting their role in T2D. Genes with high confidence scores and those involved in critical pathways related to insulin secretion or glucose metabolism are considered top candidates.
Assess Druggability: The team assesses the druggability of top-ranked targets. Open Targets provides information on whether these targets are proteins that small molecules, antibodies, or other therapeutic modalities can modulate.
Existing Compounds: The platform might also provide information on existing drugs or compounds that interact with these targets, offering insights into potential repurposing opportunities or the novelty of the target.
Cross-disease Analysis: The team checks if these targets are implicated in other diseases or biological processes, which could indicate potential side effects if modulated. For example, a target might be crucial in another system, such as the cardiovascular system, signaling potential safety concerns.
Selection of Lead Targets: Based on the integrated evidence, the research team selects a shortlist of lead targets for further experimental validation. These targets will undergo laboratory testing to confirm their role in T2D and assess their potential as druggable candidates.
By using Open Targets, the research team efficiently identifies and prioritizes potential drug targets for Type 2 Diabetes. The platform's integrated data helps them make informed decisions, reducing the time and resources spent on target validation and increasing the likelihood of successful drug development.
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