Artemis: A different kettle of fish

Four years after its academic founders conducted the largest zebrafish mutagenesis screen ever done, Artemis Pharmaceuticals GmbH is ready to do it again. However, where the first screen had an academic basis, looking at the developmental biology of the zebrafish to further understand its utility as a model system, the second screen will focus on human disease mechanisms.

Artemis (Cologne, Germany) will conduct what will be the largest vertebrate genetic screen ever done, using zebrafish to identify genes for drug discovery. As a vertebrate whose genetics and cell biology can be manipulated, the zebrafish is a useful model system for gene and target identification and compound screening (see BioCentury, Dec. 8, 1997). ...