Lexicon Genetics and Genetics Institute Make Custom Mouse Deal

THE WOODLANDS, Texas--Lexicon Genetics here announced a multiyear functional genomics research agreement with American Home Products subsidiary Genetics Institute for the rapid engineering of custom knockout mice. The agreement allows Genetics Institute to specify up to 30 genes as targets for Lexicon to produce up to 30 lines of knockout mice using its proprietary technologies in homologous recombination. Genetics Institute researchers will use knockout mice to determine the role of genes in disease and to validate novel gene products as drug targets. Other collaborators in Lexicon's homologous recombination program include Merck, BASF, Baylor College of Medicine, Max Planck Institute, Bayer, University of Texas Medical Branch Galveston, University of Pennsylvania, and the Blood Research Institute of Wisconsin. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.