ALAMEDA, Calif.--Strata Biosciences, a privately funded genomics company here, said it has developed proprietary tools with the capacity to knock out 100 genes per month using multiple vector systems, in an effort to attach functional relevance to gene sequences, discover disease-relevant genes, validate targets, and determine gene members of biological pathways.
Douglas Lane, Strata's president and CEO, remarked, "The pharmaceutical industry has invested more than $3.8 billion in gene discovery to find targets for drugs, but with the 135,000 presumed discovered genes, all but a few hundred have no known, confirmed functional relevance in disease."
Lane said his company is working to discover thousands of targets within the next three years by analyzing hundreds of thousands of genes implicated in each investigated disease process.
He added that Strata will "initially focus on major killers, including prostate and ovarian cancer, and a better understanding of immune regulation."