Artemis signs deal with Merck & Co

Germany's Artemis Pharmaceuticals GmbH says that it has signed a research agreement with US drug major Merck & Co to construct a large number of short hairpin RNA interference - genetically-engineered mouse models for the in vivo functional analysis of selected disease-related genes. The accord represents a significant initiative to undertake a large-scale approach to gene function analysis using shRNA knock down in genetically engineered mice as models for human biology, says Artemis.

Under the terms of the deal, Artemis will generate genetically engineered shRNAi "knock down" mouse models for Merck using the German firm's proprietary, optimized and fully-integrated vector construction, ES cell transfection and inducible RNAi technology. Merck will provide selected shRNA sequences that correspond to mouse genes that may also play a central role in human diseases. Artemis will use its technologies to achieve constitutive as well as inducible functional down-regulation of the expression of the gene targets provided by Merck.

Artemis claims to be the first company to have developed a robust methodology for the controlled induction of shRNA-based gene knock down in adult mice. This inducible system permits the down-regulation of a selected target gene to be turned on and off thereby more closely modeling the dosing of a pharmacologic inhibitor. The generation time for such a mouse model at Artemis is only four months, the company notes.