PARIS ¿ Incyte Genomics Inc. and the Belgian company Galapagos Genomics NV have extended their functional genomics collaboration based on Incyte¿s LifeSeq Gold gene collection by concluding a separate new agreement entailing the functional characterization of newly discovered proteins arising from Incyte¿s drug discovery and target validation programs.
The original agreement, signed in November 2000, was for the joint development and commercialization of a library of recombinant adenoviruses designed to discover and validate the function of certain genes. It called for 1,500 selected full-length genes from the LifeSeq database to be tested against several model cell lines, and resulted in several novel function hits.
The new agreement calls for Mechelen-based Galapagos to construct a custom adenoviral library composed of genes relevant to Incyte¿s in-house drug target discovery and validation effort. Using the collection of viruses produced by Galapagos, Incyte, of Palo Alto, Calif., will then undertake further functional validation studies. The financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.
According to Galapagos¿ CEO, Onno van de Stolpe, Galapagos¿ adenoviral technology has ¿great value for drug target validation programs¿ and Incyte is ¿very pleased with the progress of the current collaboration. The expansion of the collaboration toward our proprietary therapeutic programs is, therefore, a logical extension.¿ Incyte said it has developed the leading integrated platform of genomic technologies designed to help understand the molecular basis of disease.
The potency of recombinant adenovirus technology in the functional characterization of genes lies in the fact that it associates human genes with phenotypic changes such as morphology, motility, proliferation, differentiation, signal transduction and enzyme activity. Galapagos¿ functional genomics platform of arrayed adenoviruses containing human genes is based on the PER.C6 human cell line expression platform of the Dutch company Crucell NV, for which it has an exclusive license in functional genomics applications. Galapagos is a joint subsidiary of Crucell, of Leiden, and the Belgian firm Tibotec-Virco NV, which also is based in Mechelen.
Over the past three weeks, Galapagos has signed two other research collaborations, one with Cambridge, Mass.-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals Inc. in late August covering the identification of gene protein function, and one with Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology in Ghent, Belgium, in early September for the identification and validation of novel drug targets to treat Alzheimer¿s disease.