This guide will take approximately 5 minutes to complete.
In this guide you will learn:
- How to evaluate target biology in a particular animal model
- How to assess side effects from in vivo studies
Search for diseases caused by a target in an animal model of interest
To explore all target-diseases associations in an animal model, use Causaly Discover in the Causaly home page (Figure 1).
Figure 1. The Causaly Discover on the Causaly homepage
Begin your search by typing your question into the Causaly Discover search bar in natural language (Figure 2). “Which diseases are caused by KRAS?” will be used as an example (link).
Figure 2: Ask a question in natural language in the Causaly Discover search bar
Click "Search" or hit Enter on your keyboard to run the search, which will direct you to the Causaly Discover results page.
Causaly Discover offers an AI-generated summary, complete with in-line citations for transparency into the results, based on the top 20 articles. You can scroll down to view all the documents retrieved in response to your search query.
In addition, Causaly Discover will prompt you to visit the Bio Graph to review the diseases in a dendrogram list and be able to deep dive into their unique relationships with the gene of interest. Click on View analysis to open the Causaly Bio Graph knowledge card (Figure 3).
Figure 3: Causaly Bio Graph card links your search query to Causaly dendrogram results
TIP! If you are used to working with keywords on Intelligent Search and/or would like to review the results directly in the Causaly Bio Graph, you can select the option to return to your previous Causaly experience and initiate your search there by clicking the “Intelligent Search” option under “Bio Graph” on top of your Causaly homepage (Figure 4). 
Figure 4: Access the previous Causaly interface, by clicking on Bio Graph and selecting the “Intelligent Search” option.
Look for a specific species or study type
In biomedical research, animal studies are important in understanding disease pathophysiology, gene/protein regulation, and toxicity effects. Scientific findings from animal models enable scientists to prioritize biologically relevant and safe targets that are more likely to be translatable to humans.
In Causaly, you can categorize evidence by human, animal species, as well as study type by making use of the “Species” and “Study Type” filters.
Applying Filters:
In the Causaly Discover results page, the “Study Type” filter prioritizes results from in vivo studies. To focus on in vivo studies, apply the Study Type filter. Click on the Filters icon on the bottom left corner to open the filter panel and select study type, in vivo (Figure 5).
Figure 5: Click on Filters and select Study Type and In Vivo.
To deep dive into the different species studied on a topic of interest, use the filters on Intelligent Search. "What diseases are caused by KRAS?" will be used as an example (Intelligent Search link).
The “Species” categories, in the filters panel on the left, refer to the most widely employed model organisms such as mouse, rat, zebrafish, yeast, as well as studies in humans (Figure 6).
Figure 6: The “Species” filter. The numbers in brackets indicate the number of results described in each experimental model.
The categorization has the following key features and benefits:
- Feasibility – Evaluate target biology based on its expression, function, and associated cellular responses in different animal models.
- Toxicity – Examine any effects that may cause safety concerns when the target is induced or inhibited in relevant models.
- Experimental Design – Identify the disease models employed in previous investigations to help design your own experiments.
Want to learn more about how to find evidence in Causaly?
Find more information and examples on how to search posts by clicking here.