Abstract: The invention provides novel inhibitors of hedgehog signaling that are useful as a therapeutic agents for treating malignancies where the compounds have the general formula I: wherein A, X, Y R1, R2, R3, R4, m and n are as described herein.

Abstract: The present invention provides methods and reagents for the estimation of the quantity of human DNA contained in a sample. Immobilized sample DNA is hybridized to a biotinylated oligonucleotide probe that hybridizes to a human genomic or mitochondria DNA sequence. The subsequent binding of streptavidin-horseradish peroxidase to the bound probe allows for chemiluminescent detection using a luminol-based reagent and X-ray film. In addition, the present invention provides methods and reagents to assess the quality of DNA contained in a sample. The sample is first size fractionated by agarose gel electrophoresis, and then immobilized, hybridized to a biotinylated oligonucleotide probe, and detected using the chemiluminescent method as used in the quantity estimation methods of the present invention.