Lexicon Genetics to Engineer Custom Knockout Mice for Academic Research

Lexicon Genetics Inc. (The Woodlands, TX) has signed functional genomics research agreements with several academic institutions for the engineering of custom knockout mice. Under these agreements, the institutions will specify their genes of interest, and Lexicon will generate knockout mice utilizing its proprietary and patented homologous recombination technologies that include positive/negative selection, cre/lox, and isogenic DNA. Financial terms of the agreements were not disclosed.

The institutes who have signed agreements include Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore), Penn State (State College, PA), University of Southern California (Los Angeles), University of Rochester (Rochester, NY), Indiana University School of Medicine (Indianapolis), and the Max Planck Society (München, Germany).

Research employing knockout mice is one of the most powerful methods available for determining the role of genes in disease and for validating novel gene products as drug targets. Lexicon's technology for the rapid creation of custom knockout mice complements its proprietary system for the high-throughput, robotic production of mouse clones in OmniBank. Thisgene sequence database and corresponding library of over 50,000 mutant mouse embryonic stem (ES) cell clones is used by Lexicon scientists to rapidly produce mutant mice expressing specific gene defects for drug target validation and drug discovery..

Lexicon Genetics Inc. designs and develops high-throughput mutagenesis technologies for studying functional genomics in mammalian systems.

For more information: Arthur T. Sands, President and CEO, Lexicon Genetics Inc., 4000 Research Forest Dr., The Woodlands, TX 77381-4287. Tel: 281-364-0100 or 800-578-1972. Fax: 281-364-0155.