6 posts tagged with "drug targets"

Immune-mediated diseases such as asthma, eczema, inflammatory bowel disease, rheumatoid arthritis and multiple sclerosis share parts of the same immune biology, but translating that biology into therapeutic targets is still difficult. In a new paper in Scientific Reports, Maria Sobczyk and Tom Gaunt use integrative Mendelian randomization (MR) approaches to evaluate potential drug targets across 14 immune-mediated diseases.

Figure: Overlap between immune-cell-informed MR and protein-QTL MR evidence for gene-immune-mediated disease associations, illustrating why combining molecular layers adds information beyond either approach alone. Source: Sobczyk and Gaunt, Scientific Reports, 2026, Fig. 4 (CC BY 4.0).

Genome-wide association studies have mapped thousands of genetic associations, but interpreting what those associations mean biologically remains a central challenge. In a new medRxiv preprint, Andrew Elmore, Aimee Hanson, Genevieve Leyden and colleagues introduce the Human Genotype-Phenotype Map (GPMap), an open resource for tracing shared genetic signals across complex traits and molecular measurements.

Figure: GPMap processing pipeline, from GWAS summary statistics through imputation, fine-mapping, colocalisation and views by trait, gene, variant and tissue. Source: Elmore et al., medRxiv, 2026, Fig. 1 (CC BY-ND 4.0).

Overview​

Genetic studies have been very biased towards populations of European ancestry in western Europe and the United States of America, and this has led to a significant bias in the application of Mendelian randomization (MR) to identify intervention targets. In this project we worked with a leading international genetics consortium, the Global Biobank Meta-analysis Initiative (GBMI) to evaluate the differences in predicted drug target effects between African and European ancestry populations.

“The National Institute for Health and Care Research Bristol Biomedical Research Centre (NIHR Bristol BRC) has been awarded nearly £12 million of new funding for the next five years. The funding has been awarded to University Hospitals Bristol and Weston NHS Foundation Trust by the NIHR, with the University of Bristol a major partner.” - Press release

Overview​

This short animation explains how we use Mendelian randomization and colocalization to help prioritise drug targets. One of our aims in both  programme 4 of the MRC IEU and the Integrative Cancer Epidemiology Programme is to integrate such prioritizations with other data to help inform drug development.

Overview​