SynergyFinder 2.0: visual analytics of multi-drug combination synergies

Aleksandr Ianevski, Anil K. Giri, Tero Aittokallio

Nucleic Acids Research · 2020 · 948 citations · 30 references

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Concepts

TL;DR

SynergyFinder is a web‑based tool for interactive analysis and visualization of drug combination screening data, widely used to discover synergistic drug pairs and to study mechanisms of combination efficacy and resistance. The authors present SynergyFinder 2.0, an upgraded release aimed at enabling higher‑order combination data analytics and exploratory visualization of multi‑drug synergy patterns. Version 2.0 adds automated outlier detection, extended curve‑fitting, statistical analysis of replicate measurements, new visualization and export options, an updated user interface, and improved stability and performance. These enhancements are expected to broaden SynergyFinder’s applications in multi‑drug combinatorial screening and precision medicine.

Abstract

Abstract SynergyFinder (https://synergyfinder.fimm.fi) is a stand-alone web-application for interactive analysis and visualization of drug combination screening data. Since its first release in 2017, SynergyFinder has become a widely used web-tool both for the discovery of novel synergistic drug combinations in pre-clinical model systems (e.g. cell lines or primary patient-derived cells), and for better understanding of mechanisms of combination treatment efficacy or resistance. Here, we describe the latest version of SynergyFinder (release 2.0), which has extensively been upgraded through the addition of novel features supporting especially higher-order combination data analytics and exploratory visualization of multi-drug synergy patterns, along with automated outlier detection procedure, extended curve-fitting functionality and statistical analysis of replicate measurements. A number of additional improvements were also implemented based on the user requests, including new visualization and export options, updated user interface, as well as enhanced stability and performance of the web-tool. With these improvements, SynergyFinder 2.0 is expected to greatly extend its potential applications in various areas of multi-drug combinatorial screening and precision medicine.

References

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