Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation

Xenon Pharmaceuticals Inc.

Xenon Genetics Inc.

The University of British Columbia

Mark Gray-Keller

Alan D Attie

Michael R Hayden

Michael D Winther

Ronald Thaddeus Raines

Mark Eric Cook

Shaoyi Sun

Vishnumurthy Kodumuru

James M Ntambi

Makoto Miyazaki

Alison J Brownlie

Mary E Rabaglia

Richard Masten Fine

Boris Klebansky

Heinz W Gschwend

Daniel F Harvey

Wenbao Li

Simon N Pimstone

Angela R Brooks-Wilson

Jian-min Fu

The present invention relates to a recognition that an analog of &#x3b1;KG can increase glucose-induced insulin secretion in vitro and in vivo in animals, particularly in mammals, and more particularly in humans and in rodents. By employing the methods of the invention, insulin secretion can be increased.

Potentiators of insulin secretion

The use of screening assays based on the role of human stearoyl-CoA desaturase-1 ('hSCD1') in human diseases, disorders or conditions relating to serum levels of triglyceride, VLDL, HDL, LDL, total cholesterol, or production of secretions from mucous membranes, monounsaturated fatty acids, wax esters, and the like, is disclosed. Also disclosed are conventions useful in the prevention and/or treatment of such diseases.

Methods and compositions using stearoyl-CoA desaturase to identify triglyceride reducing therapeutic agents

Novel compounds useful in the treatment of, prevention of or protection against diseases and/or conditions related to metabolic syndrome and lipid metabolism, especially diseases of fatty acid and cholesterol metabolism, such as those mediated by stearoyl-CoA desaturase, are disclosed along with methods of employing said compounds for such uses.

Pyridylpiperazines and aminonicotinamides and their use as therapeutic agents

High throughput screening assays for the identification of potential therapeutic agents able to modulate the activity of enzymes of fatty acid biosynthesis, especially desaturases and/or elongases, are disclosed along with therapeutic uses of the agents identified by such assays for the prevention and/or treatment of diseases related to fatty acid metabolism. Substrates useful in such assays are also described.

High throughput screening assays using fatty acid synthetic enzymes

Methods and compounds are disclosed for lowering serum LDL levels or serum cholesterol levels, or for reducing the transport of cholesterol from the gut to the blood or the lymph, based on the observation that a gene known as ABC1 is necessary in order for cholesterol to be transported from the intestinal lumen into the bloodstream. A mutant chicken phenotype, known as the WHAM chicken, characterized by low levels of serum LDL and reduced transport of cholesterol, facilitated the discovery of this function of the ABC1 gene. Techniques which act to inhibit ABC1 activity in the cells of the intestinal wall will result in lower serum cholesterol.

Cholesterol transport gene

Growing community of inventors

Middleton, WI, United States of America

Mark Gray-Keller