Patent ID: 7029857

Claim:
A process involving competitive binding for identifying a chemical compound which specifically binds to a mammalian SNORF72 receptor which comprises separately contacting cells, or a membrane preparation from such cells, expressing on their cell surface the mammalian SNORF72 receptor, wherein such cells do not normally express the mammalian SNORF72 receptor, with both the chemical compound and a second chemical compound known to bind to the receptor, and with only the second chemical compound, under conditions suitable for binding of such compounds to the receptor, and detecting specific binding of the chemical compound to the mammalian SNORF72 receptor, a decrease in the binding of the second chemical compound to the mammalian SNORF72 receptor in the presence of the chemical compound being tested indicating that such chemical compound binds to the mammalian SNORF72 receptor; wherein the mammalian SNORF72 receptor is a human SNORF72 receptor which has an amino acid sequence identical to (1) that encoded by the plasmid pEXJ.T3T7-hSNORF72-f (ATCC amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 4; or a rat SNORF72 receptor which has an amino acid sequence identical to (1) that encoded by the plasmid pEXJ.BS-rSNORF72-f (ATCC Patent Deposit Designation No. PTA-1927) or (2) the amino acid sequence shown in SEQ ID NO: 25.