Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B
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2026, 16(4): 2299-2316
• TOOLS •
GEMap: A comprehensive gene essentiality map for drug discovery
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Saisai Tian1, Yixue Liang2, Jinbo Zhang1,3, Weishan Liang2, Jinyuan Lu4, Jiajia Ren5, Bojian Lin6, Ruijun Wu4, Chengyang Guo1, Weidong Zhang1,2,4,7
Affiliations
1 Department of Phytochemistry, School of Pharmacy, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China;
2 Pharmacy College, Guangdong Pharmaceutical University, Guangdong 350122, China;
3 Tianjin Rehabilitation and Recuperation Center, Tianjin 300110, China;
4 The Research Center for Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai Institute of Infectious Diseases and Biosafety, Institute of Interdisciplinary Integrative Medicine Research, Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Shanghai 201203, China;
5 School of Pharmacy, Henan University, Kaifeng 475004, China;
6 Department of Otolaryngology-Head & Neck Surgery, Changhai Hospital, Second Military Medical University, Shanghai 200433, China;
7 State Key Laboratory for Quality Ensurance and Sustainable Use of Dao-di Herbs, Institute of Medicinal Plant Development, Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100193, China
doi: 10.1016/j.apsb.2026.02.004
Outline
Gene essentiality (synonymous with dependency) mapping reveals therapeutic vulnerabilities for intractable oncogenes, yet integrated platforms bridging CRISPR functional genomics with drug discovery remain limited. To address this gap, we developed GEMap, A Gene Essentiality-Guided Platform for Drug Discovery, by combining genome-wide CRISPR-Cas9 essentiality profiles (1912 screens across 1135 cancer cell lines) with multi-omics annotations, drug profiles and drug targets information (20,000+ compounds). GEMap can be used to (1) explore multimodal gene data (Dependency/Expression/CNV/Mutation) across cell lines and tissues; (2) prioritize context-specific therapeutic targets by quantifying differential genetic dependencies in molecularly stratified cancers, such as KRAS mutant-cancers; and (3) discover tailored treatments and drug candidates targeting particular gene using large-scale drug perturbation data and drug physical targets. To the best of our knowledge, GEMap represents the first platform bridging CRISPR-derived genetic dependencies with pharmacological responses and biological networks and establishes an open-access paradigm for accelerating precision oncology against undruggable targets. GEMap is available at https://web.biotcm.net/GEMap/.
GEMap
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CRISPR-Cas9
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Gene essentiality
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Molecular feature
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Drug discovery
Saisai Tian, Yixue Liang, Jinbo Zhang, Weishan Liang, Jinyuan Lu, Jiajia Ren, Bojian Lin, Ruijun Wu, Chengyang Guo, Weidong Zhang.
GEMap: A comprehensive gene essentiality map for drug discovery[J].
Acta Pharmaceutica Sinica B,
2026
, 16
(4)
: 2299
-2316
.
DOI: 10.1016/j.apsb.2026.02.004
Year 2026 volume 16 Issue 4
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Article Info
doi: 10.1016/j.apsb.2026.02.004
- Receive Date:2025-06-26
- Online Date:2026-09-17