PARIS ¿ IntegraGen, a young French company specialized in the discovery of genes associated with complex genetic diseases, signed agreements with two German universities, Marburg and Heidelberg, granting it access to high-quality DNA collections for families characterized by a high incidence of obesity and diabetes.

The agreement with the University of Marburg gives IntegraGen exclusive general access to the former¿s DNA bank for the purpose of identifying additional genes involved in obesity. The deal complements the existing research program of the Obesity Consortium, part of Germany¿s Human Genome Project, in which the Max Planck Institute Bad Neuheim, the Sequencing Center of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology in Jena and the University of Ulm are involved, along with IntegraGen and Marburg University. The role of IntegraGen, the only biotechnology company in the consortium, is to analyze five specific chromosomal regions that could contain genes responsible for human obesity and to identify those genes.

IntegraGen¿s agreement with Heidelberg University is designed to enable it to develop a high-quality family collection for Type II diabetes, to which it will have exclusive rights of access. The French company will then use its integrated technology platform, GenomeHIP, to develop its own genomics programs in that therapeutic area.

GenomeHIP (for Genome Hybrid Identity Profiling) was developed by the French National Genotyping Center (NGC), which spawned IntegraGen and granted it an exclusive license for the technology. Like the NGC, IntegraGen, which was founded in July 2000, is based at the Ginoptle, France¿s national biotechnology science and business park at Evry.

Combined with sophisticated bioinformatics techniques, GenomeHIP makes it possible to discover the genes associated with complex diseases far more rapidly and accurately than is possible using traditional methods, the company said. It said GenomeHIP can analyze the whole of the genome in a single experiment without a hypothesis of the disease mechanism, enabling it to identify all the loci where genes associated with particular diseases are present. It thus overcomes the limitations of conventional gene discovery technologies based on the use of SNPs and association studies.

Obesity and diabetes are two of three metabolic diseases on which IntegraGen is focusing, the other being cardiovascular disease. In June the company completed an initial funding round in which it raised EUR6.3 million (US$5.4 million).