PARIS--ExonHit Therapeutics, the inventor of a gene profiling technology called Differential Analysis of Transcripts Alternatively Spliced, has introduced a predictive toxicology tool to enhance pharmaceutical and agrochemical research and development. Safe-Hit is a nucleic acid array that incorporates a library of genetic signaturesselected for being affected when cells and tissues are subjected to toxic stresses. A software module in the product reads the microarray, interprets results, and ranks compounds by toxicity.
According to the company, Safe-Hit works with alterations of transcripts, including gene splicing, obtained from a sustained expression of the wild-type p53 protein. The software is the first of a series of products based on the DATAS technology. Bruno Tocque, the company's CEO, said, "It is about time that genomics delivers in the field of toxicology, and Safe-Hit does just that." He called it a "complete product that will go a long way to taking the scientist's hunch out of lead molecule selection."