How the natural-model score works

Each pair of an OMIA disease group and a human disease it reaches gets a score out of 100. The score says how complete and how well supported the chain from the animal disease to the human disease is, by the rules below. The build computes it, from the same data the pages show, so every score can be checked.

The score does not say that an animal is a validated model of a human disease. That is for the reader to judge.

Each of five parts gives a value from 0 to 1. Its weight turns the value into points, and the points add up to the score. The weights are in a file with a version number, and each score records the version it was computed with. These rules are version 3.

The five parts

Target evidence

weight 35

The highest Open Targets score, from 0 to 1	1.0
No Open Targets association with the disease	0.0

Drugs

weight 25

Approved	1.0
Awaiting approval	0.9
Phase 3	0.8
Phase 2/3	0.7
Phase 2	0.6
Phase 1/2	0.5
Phase 1	0.4
Early phase 1	0.3
Investigational new drug	0.2
Preclinical	0.2
Unknown	0.2
No drug tested for this disease, but drugs act on its genes	0.1

Ortholog

weight 20

One to one	1.0
One to many	0.6
Many to many	0.4

Both routes

weight 10

Both routes	1.0
One route	0.5
Only the group's name	0.2

Species

weight 10

One naturally occurring entry	0.4
Two	0.7
Three or more	1.0
None: only genetically engineered entries	0.0

Target evidence is Open Targets' overall score between one of the group's human genes and the disease. The group's human genes come only from its naturally occurring species entries. Drugs counts the latest stage any drug, or one of its salts, has reached for the disease, whether or not it acts on the group's genes: Open Targets gives most enzyme replacement therapies no target gene. Ortholog counts the closest kind of ortholog among the gene links of the group's naturally occurring species entries. Species counts the naturally occurring species entries OMIA marks as a defect. An entry OMIA marks as genetically engineered only counts in none of the parts.

A group whose animals have no known gene can still score up to 45 points, from drugs, routes and species. A group with strong target evidence and a one to one ortholog can score up to 75 points without any drug. So the groups with a known gene rank above the groups without one, unless their evidence is weak.

What is left out

Whether the animal variant is loss-of-function, or of a kind known to cause the human disease. That is in OMIA's variant table, which the build does not load yet.
Whether a drug failed in trials. Open Targets' drug data does not say.

The check: known natural models

Natural models that researchers already use. If one ranks low, the rules or the data are missing something, and this table shows it rather than hiding it. Ranks are out of the 1086 disease groups with a score.

Model	Best score	Rank	For
Duchenne muscular dystrophy, in the dog and the cat OMIA group 1081	92.4	7	Duchenne muscular dystrophy
Haemophilia A, in the dog OMIA group 437	96.7	1	hemophilia A
Haemophilia B, in the dog OMIA group 438	96.0	2	hemophilia B
Mucopolysaccharidosis I, in the dog and the cat OMIA group 664	84.7	35	Scheie syndrome
Narcolepsy, in the dog OMIA group 703	35.0	468	narcolepsy 1
Osteosarcoma, in the dog OMIA group 1441	37.5	439	osteosarcoma