SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--July 10, 2001--MitoKor today announced a new partnership with the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), funded by a Life Sciences Informatics (LSI) Program grant from the University of California's Industry University Cooperative Research Program (IUCRP). The grant will fund research to develop computational tools to identify and decipher the function of mitochondrial proteins with the goal of improving knowledge of the role of these proteins in human disease.
``The management and analysis of large amounts of biological data using sophisticated computer-based information tools has become an essential part of today's genomic and proteomic research strategies,'' said Dr. Soumitra Ghosh, Senior Director of Research at MitoKor. ``This LSI grant, in collaboration with a leading bioinformatics group at UCSD, is focused on the development of computational tools to improve our understanding of mitochondrial proteins and pathways and their role in disease.''
The University of California's LSI program supports research at the interface of life sciences and mathematics, statistics, computational and information sciences, and engineering. The grant, entitled ``Bioinformatics of Mitochondrial Proteins,'' is in collaboration with Shankar Subramaniam, professor of bioengineering, chemistry and biochemistry at UCSD, and Senior Fellow at the University's San Diego Super Computer Center.
``This is the fifth such California state-funded grant MitoKor has received for work with University of California collaborators, providing further recognition of the importance of mitochondria in disease,'' said Walter H. Moos, Ph.D., Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of MitoKor. ``With a strong research emphasis on understanding the biology of mitochondria, MitoKor is well-suited to develop targeted and effective therapeutics for diseases of aging. This important collaboration complements other academic relationships that MitoKor is building in its effort to study the mitochondrial proteome.''
MitoKor is a biotechnology company focused on the commercial applications of mitochondrial science. Mitochondria are the self-charging batteries and engines of cells, driving energy production, metabolism, and cellular life and death, as well as participating in other key signaling pathways. Mitochondria also house the ``other'' human genome, inherited only from the mother. MitoKor has completed sequencing the mitochondrial genomes of more than 600 individuals, which is probably the world's largest database of its type. Mitochondrial dysfunction is a major contributing factor in the pathophysiology of major diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases, osteoarthritis and type 2 diabetes mellitus. MitoKor and its wholly-owned combinatorial chemistry subsidiary, Mimotopes Pty. Ltd., have established core competencies in biotechnology, drug discovery, and diagnostic development technologies, as well as in mitochondrial proteomics and genomics, disease modeling and pharmacogenomics. Through its most recently acquired subsidiary, Apollo, MitoKor has a range of compounds that have demonstrated therapeutic efficacy in a number of animal models in neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases and stroke. Two of these compounds, which have functional links to mitochondria, are in human clinical trials.
For more information, please visit our Web sites at www.mitokor.com and www.mimotopes.com. |
