Target Validation using Gene Knockouts in Somatic Cells

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Many human diseases, including cancers, have inadequate medical treatments. Often, inadequacy is not due to poor drug quality, but rather to limitations associated with the target of the drug (e.g. inadequate efficacy or unacceptable toxicity). New drug targets are therefore required to address these unmet medical needs. The availability of complete drafts of the human genome represents great potential for discovering new and effective targets for drug discovery and development. Although many descriptive technologies have been developed (e.g. expression arrays, proteomics, bio-informatics) to associate genes with human diseases, the information gained only partially identifies drug targets; they cannot predict/mimic the effects of drug products to demonstrate efficacy. PanGenex was established to exploit proprietary genetic technologies that directly tie the human genome with drug discovery. PanGenex believes that evaluation of gene knockouts on human disease attributes is highly predictive for effects of drugs and highly predictive for successful drug development. Advantages of gene knockouts include 100% inactivation of target genes with 100% specificity. PanGenex mission is to use its proprietary genetic technologies, including gene knockouts and reporter technologies, to identify and inactivate all human gene products within signaling networks relevant to human diseases to identify drug discovery targets with optimal efficacy and toxicity profiles ("therapeutic profiling"). Proof of concept for PanGenex technologies was established in SBIR Phase I studies. In Phase Il studies, a knockout vector library of over 60,000 sequences will be generated. Genes comprising the ErbB signaling network will be selected from this library for gene knockouts. PanGenex reporter technology will also be used to identify genes transcriptionally regulated by activation of the ErbB signaling network. Over 100 gene knockouts will be performed in pancreatic cancer cell lines and used in animal models to evaluate effects of gene knockouts on tumor growth delay and tumor regression. Mechanism of action studies on efficacious genes will follow. The knockout cells will also be evaluated for the ability to sensitize tumor cells to standard of care treatments for pancreatic cancer. Together, these data demonstrate the utility of PanGenex technologies to identify drug discovery targets with optimal activities.