May 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Cytogen Corporation (Nasdaq: CYTO - news) today announced that it has been awarded an Australian patent for core technology used by AxCell Biosciences, a wholly owned subsidiary of Cytogen, to expand its proprietary drug-discovery database of protein pathways. The patent covers Cloning of Ligand Targets (COLT), one of several core technologies employed by AxCell in its proprietary discovery of new proteins and in charting new protein-protein interactions.
``This patent is the first to issue on our COLT technology,'' said John Rodwell, Ph.D., AxCell's acting President and Chief Technical Officer. ``COLT permits us to use ligands, small peptide sequences that bind to larger domain units within proteins, to discover new domains, and ultimately new proteins that may be useful as drug targets.''
``Australian Patent No. 711141, 'Polypeptides Having a Functional Domain of Interest and Methods of Identifying and Using Same,' is unusually broad in its coverage, having 101 claims,'' explained Dr. Rodwell. ``The patent was issued to both Cytogen and the University of North Carolina, at Chapel Hill, and Cytogen holds exclusive license to the technology from the University. This Australian patent is similar to a patent application directed to COLT technology that Cytogen has pending in the U.S. COLT is one of the core technologies underlying AxCell's ability to measure protein interactions rapidly, and this patent issuance underscores the unique, proprietary nature of our high-throughput methodology for charting the signaling pathways in the human proteome -- a task we plan to complete within two to four years. AxCell expects to have its automated systems running at full capacity during the summer of 2000, measuring approximately 200,000 protein interactions per month.''
``Cytogen continues to build its patent estate in other areas of proteomics,'' continued Dr. Rodwell. ``Recently, we also received a notice of allowance for a U.S. patent for ligands that bind to an SH3 domain. SH3 is a ubiquitous domain involved in many protein signaling pathways, and SH3 is thought to be important in diseases such as cancer and inflammatory disorders. In April, we announced a notice of allowance from the Japanese Patent Office for a another core proteomics technology, 'Totally Synthetic Affinity Reagents' or TSAR. This week we were notified that that this patent, No. 3 043 407, had issued in Japan.''
Identifying ligands is an important step in the process used by AxCell Biosciences Corporation to generate information about protein interactions for its proprietary Inter-functional Proteomic Database(TM) of protein signaling pathways. Aberrant protein interactions in signaling pathways are thought to be the cause of many diseases. The Company believes that this proprietary database may be an important tool for the discovery of new drug targets.
AxCell Biosciences Corporation is conducting research and development in functional proteomics, the identification of protein interactions and signaling pathways within cells and their relationship to disease processes. Genomics is the large-scale study of genes, which contain the necessary information to create proteins, the molecules that carry out the cell's biological functions. Proteomics research efforts can be categorized as structural and functional. Structural proteomics, or protein expression, measures the number and types of proteins present in normal and diseased cells. This approach is useful in defining the structure of proteins in a cell. Some of these proteins may be targets for drug discovery. However, the role of the protein in the disease is still not defined. AxCell's proteomics business is focused upon functional proteomics, the study of proteins' biological activities. An important function of proteins is the transmission of signals using intricate pathways populated by proteins which interact with one another. Elucidating the role proteins play in these signaling pathways allows a better understanding of their function in cellular behavior and permits identification of potential drug targets. Protein-protein interactions form the core of the Company's Inter-functional Proteomic Database. AxCell's plans to offer the IFP Database to the pharmaceutical industry as a tool to accelerate the drug discovery process. For additional information on AxCell Biosciences, visit www.axcellbio.com . |
