Patent ID: 8067664

Claim:
A method of identifying an agent that modulates a retinal abnormality, the method comprising: (a) providing a transgenic mouse whose genome comprises a knockout of the gene which encodes for the native sequence PRO224 polypeptide, said mouse comprising a retinal abnormality resulting from said PRO224 gene knockout; (b) measuring a physiological characteristic of a retina of the transgenic mouse of (a); (c) comparing the measured physiological characteristic of (b) with that of a gender matched wild-type mouse, wherein the physiological characteristic of a retina of the transgenic mouse that differs from the physiological characteristic of a retina of the wild-type mouse is identified as a retinal abnormality resulting from the PRO224 gene knockout in the transgenic mouse; (d) administering a test agent to the transgenic mouse of (a); and (e) determining whether the test agent modulates said retinal abnormality, whereby an agent which is determined to modulate a retinal abnormality is identified.