Patent ID: 7479369

Claim:
A method for the identification and characterization of drugs that inhibit or activate spindle formation or microtubule function during cell division, wherein the method comprises using a nucleic acid molecule in a screening assay for the identification of said drug, and performing a functional analysis for the spindle formation or microtubule function during cell division, wherein the nucleic acid molecule comprises (a) a nucleic acid sequence encoding a polypeptide that exhibits a sequence identity of at least 70% over 100 residues on the amino acid level with the protein encoded by the nucleic acid sequence of SEQ ID NO: 3, (b) a nucleic acid sequence that is antisense of the nucleic acid sequence as defined in (a), or (c) a double-stranded RNA or a single-stranded RNA in the antisense or sense direction corresponding to the nucleic acid sequence as defined in (a).