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Biotech / Medical : LEXG-Lexicon Genetics -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nigel bates who wrote (113)	4/23/2002 10:36:10 AM
From: nigel bates	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 254

Lexicon Genetics Discovers New Oncogene for the Development of Drugs to Treat Cancer; Broad Therapeutic Pipeline Now Contains 11 Drug Discovery Programs THE WOODLANDS, Texas, April 23 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Lexicon Genetics Incorporated (Nasdaq: LEXG - news) today announced that the Company has discovered and validated in vivo a kinase enzyme with a previously unrecognized function for the development of drugs to treat solid tumor cancers. Lexicon intends to discover compounds that can inhibit the enzyme target, designated LG152, within one year. This target is one of 11 drug discovery programs across a range of therapeutic areas that Lexicon has initiated based on its in vivo validated drug targets. Lexicon scientists have discovered that blocking LG152 resulted in decreased cell growth and proliferation without affecting normal physiology. Over-expression of LG152 in mouse cells was found to result in tumor formation. Significantly, Lexicon scientists also found an over-abundance of LG152 in several human tumor cell lines. Taken together, data from in vivo and in vitro analyses led to the conclusion that LG152 is a new oncogene with significant potential for the development of cancer therapeutics. As a kinase, LG152 falls within a class of genes known as intracellular signalers. Intracellular signalers are being studied for the ability to attack cancer cells at the molecular level without disrupting normal cells -- a key advantage in cancer where so many existing treatments have extremely toxic side effects. ``At Lexicon we focus on developing drugs for major unmet medical needs, and no area embodies that mission more than our cancer drug discovery program,'' said Arthur T. Sands, M.D., Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of Lexicon. ``Increasingly, cancer research has focused on kinases and other intracellular signalers that control the molecular-level activities that contribute to cancer development. LG152 is a new oncogene that is extremely exciting because it appears to play a pivotal role in controlling the cell growth cycle.'' ``As early detection of cancer continues to improve, we have the opportunity to intervene at multiple points in disease progression with less toxic therapies, making cancer a chronically managed condition rather than a terminal illness,'' said James R. Piggott, Ph.D., Lexicon's Senior Vice President of Pharmaceutical Biology...