THE WOODLANDS, Texas, Jan. 18 /PRNewswire/ -- Lexicon Genetics Incorporated has granted a non-exclusive one-year sublicense to Roche Bioscience for the use of certain aspects of Lexicon's positive-negative selection and isogenic DNA technology. Roche Bioscience will use the technology in its in-house drug-discovery programs. Financial terms were not disclosed.

Positive-negative selection and isogenic DNA technologies are used to improve the efficiency of targeting genes for the generation of knockout mice. Knockout mice, which are bred with specific gene mutations, allow researchers to study gene function in mammals as it relates to physiology and disease. In both academia and industry gene knockout technology has become the preferred method to study gene function in mammals. This method provides valuable predictive information about gene products that are valid drug targets or therapeutic proteins for pharmaceutical development.

"We are pleased that Roche Bioscience has joined our growing list of sublicensees for these versatile and powerful technologies for gene targeting, and that it is the first to obtain rights to use isogenic DNA technology. These technologies enable efficient generation of in vivo mammalian models of gene function, which will become increasingly important as the field of genomics begins to capitalize on the wealth of gene sequence discovery emerging from the Human Genome Project, and will need to understand how these genes function for drug discovery," stated Randall B. Riggs, vice president of Business Development, Lexicon Genetics.

"Our ability to use these technologies to generate knockout mice directed at genes that we believe to be potentially important drug targets will advance our drug discovery and therapeutic target validation efforts," stated Ian Massey, senior vice president, Neurobiology, Roche Bioscience.

Lexicon holds certain exclusive rights under patents that cover the positive-negative selection technology (U.S. patents 5,464,764, 5,487,992, 5,627,059 and 5,631,153) and isogenic DNA technology (U.S. patent 5,789,215) under the terms of an agreement with GenPharm International, Inc. GenPharm licensed the rights to the positive-negative selection technology from the University of Utah and holds an assignment of the rights to the isogenic DNA technology. Lexicon holds the right to use these technologies in its own operations and to grant sublicenses to others for the use in their research.

Lexicon Genetics Incorporated (www.lexicon-genetics.com) is a pioneer in the design, development and application of high-throughput gene trapping and mutagenesis technologies for gene discovery and functional genomics. Lexicon employs its proprietary Human Gene Trap(TM) database, OmniBank(R) library of gene-trapped mouse clones and its web-based bioinformatics software in an integrated technology platform for drug discovery and drug target validation. Lexicon has an agreement with Millennium Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for access to the Human Gene Trap and OmniBank databases. Lexicon also has commercial OmniBank alliances with ZymoGenetics/Novo Nordisk and DuPont Pharmaceuticals. Lexicon Genetics Incorporated, founded in 1995, is a privately-held company based in The Woodlands, Texas.

Located in Palo Alto, Calif., Roche Bioscience is a research-based business-oriented enterprise dedicated to the discovery and accelerated early clinical development of innovative prescription drugs. Roche Bioscience is a member of the Roche Group, headquartered in Basel, Switzerland. The Roche Bioscience website is available at www.roche.com/bioscience.