Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard
The Broad Institute is the genomics powerhouse behind DepMap, cBioPortal co-development, and the Cancer Cell Line Encyclopedia.
DepMap (cancer dependency map), CCLE, PRISM drug screening, Cancer Program (Getz, Meyerson), CRISPR technology (Zhang).
- DepMap
- CCLE / PRISM
- Cancer genome analysis
Uses organoids and functional genomics to find what pancreatic cancers depend on beyond KRAS.
Bradley Bernstein mapped the chromatin landscapes that let cancer cells switch identities and resist drugs.
Pioneer of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing in human cells, the tool behind cancer dependency screens and edited cell therapies.
Francisca Vazquez leads DepMap, the public map of which genes each cancer cell line cannot live without.
Wrote the algorithms (MuTect, MutSig, ABSOLUTE) that most cancer genome studies use to find mutations.
Co-discovered EGFR mutations in lung cancer and linked Fusobacterium to colorectal cancer.
Showed that gene expression could classify cancers, then built the Broad into the engine of cancer genomics.
Cancers are defined as much by the tissue they come from as by the mutations they carry, which is why the same drug can work in one organ and fail in another with the same mutation. TCGA is the shared public dataset behind most modern biomarkers and target discovery.
DepMap is the lookup table drug hunters use to ask: which cancers would die if we blocked this gene, and how would we recognise them? It generated targets such as WRN and PRMT5-MTAP now in clinical trials, and it is public.
Many older people carry blood clones one or two steps from leukaemia, and those clones also drive heart disease through inflammation. CHIP is why blood-based cancer tests must filter out mutations from blood cells, and it opens a route to preventing both leukaemia and cardiovascular events in carriers.
Pages like this
not linked directly; found by shared links- InstitutionDana-Farber Brigham Cancer Center
Shares Break up the liquid droplets where oncogenic transcription happens, Let patients themselves donate their records and samples for ultra-rare cancers, David H. Koch Institute for Integrative Cancer Research at MIT, Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
- TechnologyAI-driven drug & target discovery
Shares Boltz-1 / Boltz-2 (MIT, open), An open map of which cancer proteins any drug can stick to, Score every model system on how well it predicted real trial results, An open foundation model of the cancer cell trained on perturbation data.
- IdeaA pre-competitive consortium to validate or kill academic targets before licensing
Shares An open-science consortium on the undruggable drivers, open until a candidate, DepMap (Cancer Dependency Map), CRISPR functional genomics, Preclinical results do not reproduce.
- TechnologyPatient-derived organoids
Shares Andrew J. Aguirre, Score every model system on how well it predicted real trial results, Pick the laboratory model that matches the patient, not the one to hand, An open model of every cancer cell state, built from perturbation atlases.
- TechnologyWhole-exome & whole-genome sequencing
Shares Gad Getz, Pool every multi-sample tumour genome into one open evolution atlas, Let patients themselves donate their records and samples for ultra-rare cancers, Jaiswal: clonal haematopoiesis, the pre-leukaemic clones in most people over 70.
- TermMutational signature
Shares Gad Getz, TCGA Pan-Cancer Atlas: 10,000 tumours across 33 cancer types, classified by molecular features, Wellcome Sanger Institute, Clonal evolution & minimal residual disease.
- InstitutionThe Institute of Cancer Research
Shares A precompetitive consortium for the twenty hardest cancer targets, An open map of which cancer proteins any drug can stick to, Attack the backup copy when a tumour has lost the original gene, The valley of death between lab and product.
- InstitutionThe Francis Crick Institute
Shares Pool every multi-sample tumour genome into one open evolution atlas, An open-science consortium on the undruggable drivers, open until a candidate, Clonal evolution & minimal residual disease, The valley of death between lab and product.