> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://docs.owkin.com/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://docs.owkin.com/what-you-can-do-with-k-pro/target-identification-and-indication-discovery.md).

# Target identification & indication discovery

Use K-Pro to identify and prioritize therapeutic targets, and to characterize the patient subgroups in which they're most relevant.

* **Prioritize targets**: rank therapeutic targets and gene candidates using statistical evidence from patient cohorts (TCGA, and MOSAIC in K-Pro), normal-tissue references (GTEx), proteomics (CPTAC), and curated biological knowledge bases.
* **Characterize patient subgroups**: identify distinct populations based on molecular profiles and clinical outcomes.

The pages below walk through each task with a tested example prompt:

* [Explore a cohort](/what-you-can-do-with-k-pro/target-identification-and-indication-discovery/explore-a-cohort.md)
* [Compare groups](/what-you-can-do-with-k-pro/target-identification-and-indication-discovery/compare-groups.md)
* [Rank candidate targets](/what-you-can-do-with-k-pro/target-identification-and-indication-discovery/rank-candidate-targets.md)

{% embed url="<https://vimeo.com/1183008004?fe=ci&fl=sv&share=copy>" %}

### Worked example: prioritizing ADC targets

Here is how K-Pro approaches target prioritization for antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) or, similarly. A similar workflow applies to radioligand therapies (RLTs) for instance, except that protein localization on the cell membrane is not required.

{% stepper %}
{% step %}

### You ask a question

A researcher prompts K-Pro: *"Identify and prioritize top ADC targets for bladder cancer (BLCA)."*
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### K-Pro reasons about the constraints

K-Pro translates the question into biological constraints and the analyses needed to test them. A viable ADC target must be expressed on the cell surface, be highly prevalent in BLCA tumors, and have minimal (ideally zero) expression in essential healthy tissues, to keep a safe therapeutic window.

K-Pro also takes resistance into account. Heterogeneous expression can drive resistance, so good targets are expressed in a high proportion of cells or regions within each tumor. Ideally, non-expressing regions are still reached through the bystander effect.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### K-Pro analyzes bulk, single-cell, and spatial data

K-Pro analyzes bulk transcriptomics (TCGA, MOSAIC), as well as single-cell and spatial transcriptomics (MOSAIC), and scores each candidate against these criteria.

Targets score highly when they are:

* strongly expressed in tumor tissue and absent from normal tissue (compared against GTEx normal tissue and Human Protein Atlas data);
* expressed either uniformly within the tumor, across single cells and spatial regions, or in a pattern that lets the bystander effect reach nearby non-expressing tumor cells.
  {% endstep %}

{% step %}

### K-Pro returns ranked targets with the evidence

K-Pro returns a ranking with per-target evidence, as both text and interactive plots, so you can see why each target ranks where it does.
{% endstep %}

{% step %}

### Optional: add the competitive landscape

If you ask for it, K-Pro can also factor in the competitive landscape for each target, using clinical trial data and web search, so recommendations reflect both the biology and the development context.
{% endstep %}
{% endstepper %}

Because this example is about expression-based modalities (ADCs), features typically used for small molecules, such as genetic association, dependency or oncogene addiction, and biochemical pathways, are not relevant here, and K-Pro does not apply them.

At the end, you can ask K-Pro to summarize the analyses, or, where reports are enabled, compile them into a report you can export as a PDF. Where skills are enabled for your organization, the whole sequence can also be saved as a [skill](/collaborate-and-share/customize-k-pro.md). That way you can rerun the same workflow, for another indication for example, without repeating each prompt.


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