Integrating public and in-house multiomics data to identify drug repurposing candidates for scleroderma

Scleroderma is a rare disease with no known cure that affects 22,000 Canadians. The body essentially attacks itself scarring many organs including hardening and thickening of the skin. Since the disease is so wide spread the current treatment approach is to target the affected organs or use general immunosuppressive drugs. Therefore, in order to develop effect therapies for this condition, the biology driving the disease and how it manifests in its different forms must be studied. We will curate the world wide web to collect all previous data that was derived from scleroderma patients as well as apply advanced technology to generate new molecular data. Combining as many data sources as possible will allow us to cover as many scleroderma patients as possible, that is, different subtypes of scleroderma. This project will benefit the PROOF centre through the development of tools and methods which will disseminated through open-source software. We will identify molecules that are associated with different manifestations of scleroderma as well as disease severity.

Faculty Supervisor:

Amrit Singh;James Vincent Dunne;Kevin Keen

Student:

Partner:

PROOF Centre of Excellence

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Health and Related Sciences & Technology; Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

The University of British Columbia

Program: