Deltagen: Knockout analysis
The next generation of platform companies to exploit the genomics explosion will have to develop target validation technology that is faster, more selective and more informative than established functional genomics approaches in order to carve out a market niche. Deltagen Inc. hopes to provide all of those advantages with its knockout mice.
The idea behind knockout mice - that deletion of a gene in a living mouse allows researchers to directly test the gene's biological and physiological function - has been accepted for some time. Several biotech companies are using the approach. Deltagen believes it has improved the process, adding layers of analysis both upstream and downstream of the knockout technology itself to push ahead of competing approaches...