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Approved Research

Analyses of genotype-to-phenotype data from the UK Biobank to aid in theidentification and validation of drug targets

Principal Investigator: Dr Zhaoshi Jiang
Approved Research ID: 82416
Approval date: February 8th 2022

Lay summary

The study of human genetic variation is an emerging paradigm for anticipating target-related disease-relevance, including safety and efficacy targets.

The prerequisite of drug development is to identify a disease-relevant target that is druggable. BioMap endeavors to leverage multi-omic datasets using Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology to discover effective and safe drug targets or target combinations.

The proposed research projects aim to systematically perform association analysis between genetic variation and disease phenotypes to identify and validate potential drug targets in the disease areas, including but not limited to tumor immunology, autoimmune disease, and fibrosis. The UK BioBank dataset has genetic data for about 500,000 adults, along with extensive information about each individual. The combination of UK Biobank data and AI-based methodologies will enable us to develop efficient strategies to stratify patient subgroups better, identify and validate novel drug

targets, and assess benefits/risks associated with different patient characteristics.

Specifically, within BioMap's research and development interests, we are focusing on developing therapeutics for immune-related diseases, including but not limited to tumour immunology, autoimmune disease, and fibrosis. We anticipated the study would be completed in around 36 months, with interest to be renewed afterward.

We hope the data offers opportunities for understanding disease biology, identifying and prosecuting novel drug targets, deriving strong evidence for patient stratification in clinical trials, and ultimately, contributing to unmet medical needs and significantly improving public healthcare.