STRATEGIES FOR THE APPLICATION OF FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS TECHNOLOGY TO BIOPHARMACEUTICAL DRUG DISCOVERY

We have developed a strategy to apply genomics and functional genomics -based technologies to the discovery of novel proteins which represent potential therapeutic candidates. The core of this strategy is based on a process for the high-throughput discovery, full-length cDNA cloni ng and expression of novel human secreted proteins. The availability o f full-length cDNA sequences enables sophisticated computational seque nce analysis. Expression of the encoded proteins facilitates the direc t testing of each gene product in many different bioassays. We expect that a systematic approach to the analysis of this bioassay data, in c ombination with genetic mapping data and gene expression pattern analy sis, will accelerate the discovery and functional analysis of human se creted proteins and, ultimately, the rate of development of therapeuti c protein products. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.