Open Targets is an innovative public-private partnership that uses human genetics and genomics data for systematic drug target identification and prioritisation.

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Ellen McDonagh

Translational Informatics Director

emcdonagh [at] ebi.ac.uk

ORCID: 0000-0001-5806-6174

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Open Targets was founded in 2014 to address a key challenge in drug development: that almost 90% of all drug discovery efforts fail during clinical trials. The high failure rate can be attributed to a lack of efficacy or poor safety profiles due to a lack of understanding of the biological drug target.

Through our experimental and informatics research programmes, Open Targets provides an initial assessment of the likely effectiveness of pharmacological intervention on these targets. By using genome-scale experiments and analysis and cutting edge informatics technologies, we work to identify the causal links between targets and diseases in our focus therapeutic areas – oncology, neurodegeneration, and immunology/inflammation.

Our work is guided by three key principles:

• A systematic approach: we systematically identify and prioritise the best targets to safely and effectively treat rare and common diseases
• Rapid publication: we are committed to open science and share our data openly through high-impact research publications, review articles, and specialised open-source informatics tools
• Open collaboration: we believe in non-exclusive partnerships that foster the free exchange of ideas, expertise, and data

At the heart of Open Targets is a consortium of complementary partner institutions that bring their respective expertise to collaborative projects that systematically identify and prioritise drug targets. Together, we provide a research and development framework that applies to all aspects of human disease with the goal of improving the success rate for discovering new medicines.