Open Targets: Integrating Genetics and Functional Biology Data to Identify and Prioritise Gene Targets for Various Diseases
Abstract:
Drug discovery is a lengthy process, typically more than a decade from initial discovery stage to when the drug reaches the market. From historical data, lack of safety in pre-clinical stages and/or lack of efficacy at Phase II & III of clinical trials are the main contributors of the high failure rate. To address this challenge, Open Targets, an academia and industry partnership was formed in 2014, with the primary objective of systematic identification, prioritisation and validation of drug targets and ultimately increasing the odds of success of drug discovery programs across therapeutic areas.
Speaker's Profile:
Chuang Kee is currently the Data Integration Manager at OpenTargets. He joins OpenTargets from Ensembl, one of the most successful large-scale bioinformatics project in history. Before Ensembl, Chuang Kee had worked for Sime Darby Technology Center (SDTC) and Eli Lilly, where he led various cross functional, disciplines drug discovery informatics projects to support target identifications and validation in a variety of therapeutic areas including oncology, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Prior to Eli Lilly, he was with Medical Research Council in Edinburgh, Scotland working on the Mouse Brain Atlas project. Chuang Kee has a Bachelor (Hons) in Information Technology from Multimedia University and a Master in Bioinformatics from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.