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 cloning and expression of novel human secreted proteins. The availability of full-length cDNA sequences enables sophisticated computational sequence analysis. Expression of the encoded proteins facilitates the direct testing of each gene product in many different bioassays. We expect that a systematic approach to the analysis of this bioassay data, in combination with genetic mapping data and gene expression pattern analysis, will accelerate the discovery and functional analysis of human secreted proteins and, ultimately, the rate of development of therapeutic protein products. (C) 1997 Wiley-Liss, Inc.