Imgenex Corp. develops and commercializes novel reagents for the scientific study of human biology and disease and for the production of new diagnostic assays and potential therapies of such diseases. These novel reagents include antibodies, gene and protein expression systems, and arrays of various cells and tissues for use in studies of functional genomics. Areas of biological interest at IMGENEX include cancer, apoptosis (programmed cell death), molecular signaling pathways, cellular aging, and metabolic and infectious diseases.

Apoptosis, or programmed cell death, occurs during normal cellular differentiation and development of multicellular organisms. Apoptosis is induced by certain cytokines including TNF and Fas ligand of the TNF family through their death domain containing receptors, TNFR1 and Fas. Receptor activator of NF-kB (RANK) is a recently cloned member of the TNFR superfamily with no significant homology to other members of this family (1). RANK ligand (RANKL/TRANCE/ OPGL) (mAbs to RANKL is also available from Imgenex, Cat # IMG-133) binds to RANK on dendritic cells, upregulates the expression of anti-apoptotic protein BcL-XL suggesting a role in dendritic cell survival (2). The cytoplasmic domain of RANK interacts with TRAF2, TRAF5 and TRAF6 (3,4). Overexpression of RANK activates NF-kB and c-Jun-terminal kinase (JNK) pathways (3). Recent studies have shown that RANK interaction with TRAF6 activates NF-kB, whereas JNK activation is mediated through binding of RANK to TRAF2 (4).