To help identify suitable cancer cell lines for experiments, canSAR provides a ranked list of these for consideration by the biologist. The ‘Cell Line Annotations’ module ranks 1300 cell lines based currently on target expression levels in the cell line and evidence of genetic dependency. Genetic dependency utilises the Sanger project SCORE (34) and DepMap CRISPR and RNAi analyses (35). Cancer cell lines are ranked by the degree of their dependency on the specific target. For expression ranking, cell lines are ranked according to the normalised level of expression of the specific target. In addition, cell lines are assessed for sensitivity in functional assays performed with good quality chemical probes and approved / investigational drugs. Significant evidence for each of the three categories assessed is portrayed visually (Supplementary Figure S2C), and combined to generate the overall cell line ranking. The user can explore the complete cancer cell line spectrum and prioritise lines by desired experimental approach (e.g. CRISPR versus chemical target inhibition), be alerted on low or unknown target expression cell lines and informed on cell lines for a specific cancer type.
