Target discovery programs at Galapagos begin with development of a human primary cell based assay that models the disease pathways most relevant to therapeutic intervention strategies. The adenovirus based gene expression collections are then screened in this assay (the “primary screen”) to identify genes whose protein products alter the disease pathway as predicted by the assay read-out (“hits”). These hits are then taken through selected secondary validation assays to confirm their role in modulating the disease phenotype. The ability to model a disease in human primary cells offers a level of correlation with human in vivo pathology that cannot be achieved by using human secondary cell lines or animal cells in the assay. Consequently, targets discovered by application of Galapagos technologies need less validation and move into compound screening more rapidly.

These adenoviral collections are offered to pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and biotech partners through BioFocus DPI as well as used internally by Galapagos for discovery programs focused in: