EMBL-EBI/Open Targets

EMBL-EBI make the world’s public biological data freely available to the scientific community via a range of services and tools, perform basic research and provide professional training in bioinformatics. The institute is part of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL), an international, innovative and interdisciplinary research organisation funded by over 20 member states, prospect and associate member states.

EMBL-EBI is situated on the Wellcome Genome Campus in Hinxton, Cambridge, UK, one of the world’s largest concentrations of scientific and technical expertise in genomics.

As part of their Chemical Biology capabilities, EMBL-EBI develop and manage ChEMBL, the institute’s database of quantitative small molecule bioactivity data focused in the area of drug discovery; produce SureChEMBL, for patent information; and UniChem, which provides a convient way to cross-reference multiple databases using chemical structure. In addition to delivering these resources to the community the Chemical Biology team at EMBL-EBI is involved in various other collaborative projects that build on their capabilities and expertise, including Open Targets and Illuminating the Druggable Genome, both of which are concerned with target selection and prioritisation.

EMBL-EBI is a partner in Open Targets, an innovative public-private partnership to improve identification and prioritisation of drug targets. Open Targets conducts research programmes in bioinformatics and experimental genomics and genetics to integrate data that will improve drug target choice.

As part of the UK SPINE, Ian Dunham and Andrew Leach have leveraged the resource of the Chemistry Services group and the Open Targets Platform and the Open Targets Genetics Portal to provide access to integrated information around the likely efficacy of a drug target in aging.