PARIS - The Belgian functional genomics company Galapagos Genomics NV was awarded two technology development grants totaling €4 million (US$3.8 million) by research institutes in Belgium and the Netherlands.

It will receive €2.6 million from the Flemish Institute for the Promotion of Industrial-Scientific-Technological Research (IWT) for creating libraries of specific human gene classes for the discovery of novel therapeutic targets.

In addition, the Netherlands Institute for the Stimulation of Technological Development and Collaboration (Senter) is giving the company €1.4 million to develop an adenovirus-based knockdown technology applicable to in vitro and in vivo target discovery and validation. That three-year project, in which two U.S. companies are involved alongside Galapagos, is designed to yield an efficient system to inhibit the expression of selected genes in human cells, thus providing valuable information about the functions of those genes.

Galapagos CEO Onno van de Stolpe told BioWorld International that he was not in a position to name the two American associates, but said they were large, well-known corporations. "Including industrial partners was a requirement for the grant," he explained. "One of the goals of the project is to increase cooperation between the Netherlands and other countries."

Galapagos Genomics, of Mechelen, was established in 1999 and is specialized in target identification and validation utilizing its adenovirus-based PhenoSelect technology, derived from the PER.C6 human cell line expression platform of the Dutch company Crucell NV in Leiden. Both projects will draw on the company's expertise in the fields of adenoviral vector technology, cellular and molecular biology and assay development and validation methodology. Results will be integrated in the PhenoSelect platform.

Galapagos is engaged in research collaborations and is conducting in-house research and development programs targeted at Alzheimer's disease, rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis. Van de Stolpe said the enhancement of PhenoSelect would benefit both its own research and that of its partners. He said the research project being funded by IWT would yield a library of about 6,000 viruses but would include "only druggable-class genes."

In March, Galapagos closed an initial funding round in which it raised €21.4 million from five venture capital funds and the two biotechnology companies that founded it - Crucell and Tibotec-Virco NV, also of Mechelen.