Gene Logic Announces Equity Investment and Collaboration with Metabometrix Ltd.
GAITHERSBURG, Md. & LONDON--(BW HealthWire)--June 14, 2001--Gene Logic Inc. (Nasdaq:GLGC - news) announced today that it has invested in, and initiated a research collaboration with, Metabometrix Ltd., a UK-based biotechnology company, as part of its ongoing efforts to accelerate the growth of the content component of its biological information products. Financial terms of the investment were not disclosed.
In a continuing effort to leverage its research and development initiatives, Gene Logic has made this initial equity investment in Metabometrix Ltd., a company based on the new science of metabonomics pioneered by Professor Jeremy Nicholson and his team at Imperial College, London. Metabonomics involves the elucidation of changes in metabolite patterns associated with drug toxicity or disease processes based on the measurement of metabolites in biofluids (i.e. urine, blood, plasma and cerebrospinal fluid) and tissues from patients and animal models of disease. The applications of this technology include drug toxicity screening, drug efficacy screening, clinical diagnostics and environmental science.
Metabometrix Ltd. uses state-of-the-art high field Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy with advanced chemometric methods to generate, classify and interpret high-density metabolic data using high-throughput robotic flow-injection technology. NMR can be applied to simultaneously measure hundreds of metabolites from a wide range of pathways that are characteristically altered in specific types of drug toxicity, drug process or genetic intervention.
Pursuant to the collaboration, Gene Logic and Metabometrix Ltd. will be engaging in studies designed to link metabolic and gene expression data. Gene Logic believes the most immediate impact of the linking of these two data sets will be in the area of predictive toxicology to potentially add new insights to Gene Logic's toxicology database, the ToxExpress(TM) Module. The ToxExpress(TM) Module and associated algorithms are being developed as a predictive tool for pharmaceutical companies to use to rank candidate compounds based on their potential for human toxicity.
Professor Jeremy Nicholson, Chief Scientist of Metabometrix Ltd. said, ``As a new company, Metabometrix Ltd. is delighted to be associated with Gene Logic to develop linked genomic and metabonomic databases and establishing novel metabo-genomic correlates. Such a relationship may increase the value of genomic data by helping to strengthen the links between changes in gene expression and biological end-points.''
``We are pleased to make this initial investment in Metabometrix Ltd. and anticipate identifying the relationship between genomic and metabonomic markers for human disease and toxicity,'' said Mark D. Gessler, Chairman and CEO of Gene Logic. ``This agreement with Metabometrix Ltd. is indicative of our commitment to make on-going investments in companies and technologies that support our mission of creating comprehensive information solutions for pharmaceutical and biotechnology drug development.
Metabometrix Ltd. Overview
Metabometrix Ltd is a development-stage company with a proprietary platform of metabonomics technology for generating, classifying and interpreting metabolic information obtained from biological fluids and tissues using NMR spectroscopy and advanced chemometric methodologies. Metabometrix is the leader in the use of metabonomic technology to identify drug targets and to speed and improve the development of drugs through identifying biochemical markers of disease, toxicity and drug efficacy. Metabometrix markets its metabonomic technologies to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. For more information visit the company's Web site at www.metabometrix.com. |
