The partnership
Who we are
Open Targets is a pre-competitive, public-private partnership that uses human genetics
and
genomics data to
systematically identify and prioritise drug targets.
The consortium was founded in 2014 by
EMBL-EBI, the
Wellcome
Sanger Institute and GSK as the Centre for Therapeutic Target Validation (CTTV). We rebranded as "Open
Targets" in 2016.
Why join the partnership?
Partner organisations play an active role in shaping the scientific direction of Open Targets. Project
proposals are solicited from across the consortium, and partners have direct input into which projects are
selected
for the research programme through the Open
Targets Governance Board and Scientific Leadership Team, which include representatives from all partners. This
ensures that Open Targets' work reflects the
priorities
and expertise of the whole consortium.
Partners benefit
from an
ongoing exchange of ideas, methods, and unpublished findings across the consortium's active projects, and
receive early access to data as it is generated. We also maintain an exclusive
partner-only version of the Open Targets Platform that integrates internal project data alongside public
datasets, allowing researchers to contrast new results with existing data.
Open Targets has had the single biggest impact in integrating the Sanger Institute and EMBL-EBI
science,
above and beyond any other initiative I’ve seen in that time.
There’s been a deeper
collaboration, even within Sanger alone, as it brought faculty groups across programmes to collaborate
together on shared goals–translating their research findings to advance drug discovery.
Open Targets has deepened my understanding of what it takes to take basic or translational science and
convert that into a drug discovery effort. Ultimately, it has made my work more translationally focused, and
with clearer outputs that are more likely to yield interesting targets that could be pursuable in an
industry setting.
Current partners
The European Bioinformatics Institute (EMBL-EBI) is a global leader in the management, integration, and analysis of life science data ... read more
Genentech is a biotechnology company dedicated to pursuing groundbreaking science to discover and develop medicines for people with serious and life-threatening diseases ... read more
GSK is a global pharmaceutical company that has developed some of the most successful drugs of the past three decades ... read more
MSD aspires to be the premier research-intensive biopharmaceutical company. MSD is at the forefront of research to deliver innovative... read more
Pfizer is one of the world's premier biopharmaceutical companies that has developed innovative therapies and vaccines that change patients' lives and make the world a healthier place ... read more
Sanofi is a global biopharmaceutical company focussed on human health and transforming scientific innovation into healthcare solutions around the globe ... read more
The Wellcome Sanger Institute is a world-leading genomics institution with expertise in human genetics, cancer, and infectious disease ... read more
Previous partners
Biogen was a member of Open Targets between 2016 and 2020, Takeda was a member between 2017 and 2020, and BMS was a member between 2018 and 2024.
Collaborations
We also collaborate with other groups with similar philosophies and complementary expertise on specific projects where we believe the collaboration will be impactful. Working together, they can focus their expertise to build resources and projects that are greater than the sum of their parts. Currently we are working with the UKDRI and the Medical School at the University of Cambridge, University College London, the University of Tartu, and the University of Oxford among others.