Aug. 24 /PRNewswire/ -- Phylos, Inc. today announced the achievement of key milestones under a research agreement with Amgen, Inc. The two companies have been collaborating to apply Phylos' PROfusion(TM) technology to rapidly identify high-affinity binding agents to potential therapeutic targets supplied by Amgen. Amgen will use the sequences and structural information gained through this collaboration for its internal drug discovery programs. Financial details of the agreement were not disclosed.
``We have been collaborating with Amgen to deliver high-affinity agents and sequence data in an aggressive time frame,'' said Ashley Lawton, Ph.D., president of Phylos. ``We believe our relationship with Amgen, and the success we achieved under this collaboration, provides the Company and our partners with additional validation for our exciting technology platform.''
Phylos' proprietary PROfusion(TM) system represents a unique breakthrough technology for the selection of peptides and proteins with desired properties. The fundamental advance is the in vitro covalent linkage of a protein (phenotype) to its respective messenger RNA (genotype). This allows the Company to produce massive libraries (1013-1014) of compounds for target validation, drug discovery, and other proteomic applications. The Company believes that this component of its technology represents a very powerful and attractive alternative to traditional phage display. To date, Phylos has secured more than $30 million of funding through a series of corporate partners and government collaborations.
Under its collaboration with Amgen, Phylos applied its proprietary technology to deliver high-affinity agents that satisfied the predetermined criteria established by Amgen. ``Our binding affinity requirements were somewhat stringent, and Phylos met them without affinity maturation,'' said Bruce Kimmel, Ph.D., associate director, research of Amgen. ``We are pleased with the outcome of this preliminary collaboration.'' Going forward, Phylos will continue to forge mutually beneficial relationships with innovative partners having synergistic technologies, capabilities, and interests.
Phylos, a privately held biotechnology company, has developed an integrated target identification and validation platform which will play a pivotal role in translating the biology and understanding of the human genome into novel pharmaceutical products. A key component to the Company's business model is the PROfile(TM) chip, the first high-throughput protein biochip that will revolutionize drug discovery and functional proteomics. Through this innovative and proprietary product, Phylos is on an aggressive track to become the market leader in the next generation of biochips.
For additional information, visit the Company's Internet web site at phylos.com |
