Open Targets: New Name, New Data

The Centre for Therapeutic Target Validation - now called ‘Open Targets’ - releases its first experimental datasets from consortium experiments and a new API (application programming interface), demonstrating its commitment to sharing data.

Hinxton, Cambridge, United Kingdom, 19 April 2016 – Following the successful launch of its Target Validation platform at the end of 2015, the Centre for Therapeutic Target Validation has released its first open experimental datasets. Now renamed Open Targets, the pioneering public–private initiative remains committed to speeding up the discovery of new medicines.

Open Targets projects use genome-scale experiments and analysis to provide evidence on the biological validity of therapeutic targets – and to glean insights into the likely effectiveness of pharmacological intervention on these targets. The collaboration’s initial experimental projects focus on oncology, respiratory and immuno-inflammatory diseases. Demonstrating its commitment to sharing its data openly with the scientific community, Open Targets today released the first datasets from its melanoma sequencing and cell-line epigenomes projects.

The second release of the Target Validation platform also offers programmatic access to a vast, diverse, integrated range of freely available data – connected via 8000 disease terms and over 24,000 genes. Users can now browse the platform through a web interface designed by user-experience experts, or gather many relevant datasets at once using the new Target Validation application-programming interface (API). This makes it easier for researchers in companies and academic settings to integrate their own data with public datasets, and work on them locally.

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Selected Websites

Open Targets (formerly CTTV - Centre for Therapeutic Target Validation)

Open Targets aims to provide an R&D framework that applies to all aspects of human disease, and to share its data openly with the scientific community. It is a shared initiative between the European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI), a global leader in the management, integration and analysis of public domain life science data; GSK, a leading, global pharmaceutical company; Biogen, one of the world’s oldest independent biotechnology companies; and the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, a world-leading genomics institution with expertise in human genetics, cancer and infectious disease. For information about how your company might interact with Open Targets, e-mail the scientific coordinators at [email protected]

Biogen

EMBL-EBI

The European Bioinformatics Institute is part of EMBL, and is a global leader in the storage, analysis and dissemination of large biological datasets. EMBL-EBI helps scientists realize the potential of ‘big data’ by enhancing their ability to exploit complex information to make discoveries that benefit mankind. It is a non-profit, intergovernmental organization funded by EMBL's 21 member states and two associate member states. Its 570 staff hail from 57 countries, and work with a regular stream of visiting scientists throughout the year. EMBL-EBI is located on the Wellcome Genome Campus in Hinxton, Cambridge in the United Kingdom.

GSK

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute is one of the world's leading genome centers. Through its ability to conduct research at scale, it is able to engage in bold and long-term exploratory projects that are designed to influence and empower medical science globally. Institute research findings, generated through its own research programs and through its leading role in international consortia, are being used to develop new diagnostics and treatments for human disease.

The Wellcome Trust

The Wellcome Trust is a global charitable foundation dedicated to achieving extraordinary improvements in human and animal health. We support the brightest minds in biomedical research and the medical humanities. Our breadth of support includes public engagement, education and the application of research to improve health. We are independent of both political and commercial interests.

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