Unexplored therapeutic opportunities in the human genome

Tudor I. Oprea, Cristian G. Bologa, Søren Brunak, Allen Campbell, Gregory N. Gan, Anna Gaulton, Shawn M. Gomez, Rajarshi Guha, Anne Hersey, Jayme Holmes, Ajit Jadhav, Lars Juhl Jensen, Gary L. Johnson, Anneli Karlson, Andrew R. Leach, Avi Ma'ayan, Anna Malovannaya, Subramani Mani, Stephen L. Mathias, Michael T. McManusTerrence F. Meehan, Christian Von Mering, Daniel Muthas, Dac Trung Nguyen, John P. Overington, George Papadatos, Jun Qin, Christian Reich, Bryan L. Roth, Stephan C. Schürer, Anton Simeonov, Larry A. Sklar, Noel Southall, Susumu Tomita, Ilinca Tudose, Oleg Ursu, Dušica Vidović, Anna Waller, David Westergaard, Jeremy J. Yang, Gergely Zahoránszky-Köhalmi

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

199 Scopus citations

Abstract

A large proportion of biomedical research and the development of therapeutics is focused on a small fraction of the human genome. In a strategic effort to map the knowledge gaps around proteins encoded by the human genome and to promote the exploration of currently understudied, but potentially druggable, proteins, the US National Institutes of Health launched the Illuminating the Druggable Genome (IDG) initiative in 2014. In this article, we discuss how the systematic collection and processing of a wide array of genomic, proteomic, chemical and disease-related resource data by the IDG Knowledge Management Center have enabled the development of evidence-based criteria for tracking the target development level (TDL) of human proteins, which indicates a substantial knowledge deficit for approximately one out of three proteins in the human proteome. We then present spotlights on the TDL categories as well as key drug target classes, including G protein-coupled receptors, protein kinases and ion channels, which illustrate the nature of the unexplored opportunities for biomedical research and therapeutic development.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)317-332
Number of pages16
JournalNature Reviews Drug Discovery
Volume17
Issue number5
DOIs
StatePublished - 27 Apr 2018

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