Patent ID: 6921646

Claim:
A method of screening for compounds that bind to a patched protein, said method comprising: (a) combining a candidate compound with a cell comprising an expression cassette further comprising (i) a transcriptional initiation region, (ii) a transcriptional termination region, and (iii) a nucleic acid sequence encoding the patched protein under the transcriptional regulation of said transcriptional initiation region and said transcriptional termination region, wherein said nucleic acid sequence (I) encodes the patched protein, which patched protein is present in the membrane of said cell and (II) hybridizes under stringent conditions, including a wash step of 0.2×SSC at 65° C., to the nucleic acid sequence represented in SEQ ID NO: 18, and wherein the patched protein can bind to a hedgehog polypeptide; and (b) assaying for the binding of said candidate compound to the patched protein.