Patent ID: 7447594

Claim:
A method for determining whether a test compound is a cardiotoxin, comprising: (a) exposing heart tissue or heart cells to the test compound; (b) preparing a normalized gene expression profile of at least ten genes for said heart tissue or heart cells, wherein the gene expression profile contains the differential gene expression values for said at least ten genes upon exposure to the test compound, and wherein said at least ten genes are listed in one of Tables 5A-5LL; (c) comparing the gene expression profile to a cardiotoxicity model, the cardiotoxicity model comprising information from one or more of Tables 5A-5LL, and comprising: (i) the normalized mean expression levels of said at least ten genes in heart tissue or heart cells exposed to a known cardiotoxin, and (ii) the normalized mean expression levels of said at least ten genes in unexposed heart tissue or heart cells; and (d) scoring the comparison to determine whether the test compound is a cardiotoxin.