ExonHit: The splice of life

While the publication of the human genome has brought the issue of alternative splicing to the forefront of post-genome conversation, ExonHit Therapeutics S.A. has been working in the area since its inception. The company is using its Differential Analysis of Transcripts with Alternative Splicing (DATAS) technology to determine the human spliceasome - the complete set of splice variant proteins.

The company was founded in 1997 by researchers from Rhone-Poulenc Rorer S.A. (now Aventis S.A.). "We were looking at several splice variants and found that each isoform had a different function," said CEO Bruno Tocque. In cell signaling, for example, the researchers found that a splice variant of the GRAB2 protein induced cell death, primarily in T cells, while the non-variant protein promoted cell proliferation...