Building target intelligence
Open Targets is a collaboration between industry and academia that harnesses human genetics and large-scale genomics to identify and prioritise the most promising drug targets — accelerating the path from discovery to clinic.
Explore the Platform (opens in a new tab) Our scienceSeven world-leading institutions, one shared mission
Open Targets is a public–private partnership between leading academic institutes and global pharmaceutical companies.
The Open Targets Platform is an exceptional resource for target identification and prioritization, and a key
resource in our discovery efforts. It integrates diverse data sources to uncover robust target-disease
relationships that help drive therapeutic development—a mission that aligns perfectly with our work at
Genentech. In addition, by partnering with scientists from Sanger and the EMBL-EBI through Open Targets
projects, we've been able to generate novel and powerful foundational datasets for disease biology and ground
them in a broader biological context through integration within the Platform.
The Open Targets Partnership provides a unique model for public-private collaboration, one that
generates value for participating pharma members, for Sanger and EMBL-EBI scientists, and for the broader
research community.
Explore the targets worth pursuing
The Open Targets Platform integrates genetics, genomics, transcriptomics, clinical, and literature data to for systematic target identification and prioritisation, giving researchers a single, trusted starting point to build therapeutic hypotheses.
Science built around understanding human disease
Candidate drugs with genetically validated targets are more likely to succeed in clinical trials. Our research programme generates large-scale genetics, functional genomics and patient data to build confidence the target hypothesis. Our integration and analysis of this data aids drug discovery decision making.
Oncology
Large-scale CRISPR screens, somatic genomics and patient tumour profiling drive identification and validation of cancer targets, with a focus on resistance mechanisms and tumour dependencies.
Neurodegeneration
Genetic dissection of diseases like Alzheimer's and Parkinson's, combining GWAS, multi-omics, human iPSC models and patient tissue profiling enable us to move from signal to mechanism.
Immunology & inflammation
Decoding the genetics of immune-mediated diseases to surface targets with novel phenotypic screening approaches and atlasing disease tissue provide the clearest causal evidence across conditions like IBD and SLE.
Our principles
A systematic approach
We leverage publicly available data to systematically identify and prioritise the best targets to safely and effectively treat rare and common diseases.
Open exchange of ideas
Science advances faster when ideas are shared openly. All our data, tools, and publications are made publicly available as soon as possible.
Multidisciplinary collaboration
We believe in non-exclusive partnerships that foster the free exchange of ideas, knowledge, and data.
News & research highlights
Molecular map of liver disease could transform how MASLD is diagnosed and monitored
A new study establishes a molecular map of disease progression in Metabolic dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease (MASLD), and identifies a set of blood biomarkers that could improve diagnosis.
Cellular study maps gene activity changes across more than 50 gut cell types in Crohn’s disease
The latest IBDverse study identifies the genes expressed in Crohn's disease, revealing a lasting 'molecular scar' in the gut lining.
Study of millions of cells reveals new way to understand genetic risk of disease
Scientists have created the most detailed cell map to date showing how genetic variation influences inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), revealing the specific cells and genes that drive the disease.