Ochre Bio has announced the successful completion of its research collaboration with GSK, delivering two rich human-liver datasets that could accelerate drug discovery for liver disease. Over the course of the project, Ochre generated (1) a large-scale functional genomics dataset by systematically knocking down every known hepatocyte gene in primary human liver cells from multiple donors and profiling the resulting impacts through RNA sequencing, and (2) a single-cell dataset derived from perfused human donor livers that captures gene expression across various liver cell types and individuals.
The collaboration now transitions to a multi-year, co-exclusive license agreement under which both Ochre and GSK will use the proprietary human-liver data for therapeutic development. To maximize its utility, Ochre has integrated the datasets into its OBELiX platform, which connects gene-perturbation data with clinical disease signatures across cell types and disease states. This integration enables causal mapping of gene functions to disease pathways and helps illuminate how different liver cell populations contribute to disease progression.
Ochre and GSK say that the combined data will feed AI and machine-learning models to identify and validate new therapeutic targets more precisely than before. For Ochre, these datasets underpin its strategy of building RNA-based medicines in a human-biology context, while GSK sees them as foundational to its efforts in hepatology. The collaboration underscores how large-scale, human-centric data is becoming a critical lever for next-generation drug discovery.
