Principal Investigator Eric Lander
Project Website http://www.broadinstitute.org/science/projects/connectivity-map/connectivity-map
The Connectivity Map is an integrated database containing the genetic signatures resulting from pharmaceutics, gene inhibitors and disease states. Using computational tools to compare the signatures, the goal is to systematically reveal connections among drugs, genes and diseases to accelerate biological understanding and therapeutic development.
This research effort aims to generate a detailed map that links gene patterns associated with disease to corresponding patterns produced by drug candidates and a variety of genetic manipulations. The Connectivity Map is the most comprehensive effort yet for using genomics in a drug-discovery framework. To build a Connectivity Map, the Broad brings together molecular biologists, genomics specialists, computational scientists, pharmacologists, chemists and chemical biologists, as well as expertise from across the breadth and depth of medicine.
One of the Connectivity Map's unique features is that it allows researchers to screen compounds against genomewide disease signatures, rather than a pre-selected set of target genes. Drugs are paired with diseases using sophisticated pattern-matching methods with a high level of resolution and specificity.