A guide for bioinformaticians: ‘omics-based drug discovery for precision oncology

•New methods of cooperation with bioinformatics are required for precision medicine.•Omics-based strategies can promote early drug discovery.•We describe practical omics-based methodologies to aid early drug discovery. Bioinformatics-centric drug development is inevitable in the era of precision medicine. Clinical ‘omics information, including genomics, epigenomics, transcriptomics, and proteomics, provides the most comprehensive molecular landscape in which each patient’s pathological history is delineated. Hence, the capability of bioinformaticians to manage integrative ‘omics data is crucial to current drug development. Bioinformatics can accelerate drug development from initial time-consuming discoveries to the clinical stage by providing information-guided solutions. However, many bioinformaticians do not have opportunities to participate in drug discovery programs. As a starting point for bioinformaticians with no prior drug development experience, here we discuss bioinformatics applications during drug development with a focus on working-level omics-based methodologies.