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Biotech / Medical : Celltech Group (NYSE: CLL) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: nigel bates who wrote (41)	5/17/2002 11:31:02 AM
From: keokalani'nui	Respond to of 123

Also from PR: Discovery of Sclerostin protein Celltech has been working with academic researchers to study a rare Afrikaner population who have extremely high bone density, known as sclerosteosis. These individuals suffer excess bone formation during their lifetime, resulting in bones that are extremely strong. Using an approach termed the "Genetic Disorder as a Drug Surrogate", it was proposed that understanding the mechanism for the strong bone formation observed in sclerosteosis patients would provide insights into building new bone for patients afflicted with osteoporosis, whose bones are fragile. The goal was to discover the genetic defect that resulted in excessive bone formation and apply this knowledge to design therapeutics that would help build new bone in osteoporosis sufferers. In a painstaking process, Celltech's researchers compared the DNA of affected families with that of non-affected families. Using genomic techniques, the genetic defect in sclerosteosis was mapped to a single chromosome. Further analysis identified a single mutation amongst 3 billion base pairs. This defect, which leads to premature termination of a protein known as Sclerostin, triggers bone deposition in patients. It is believed that controlling Sclerostin with a therapeutic entity, such as a high-affinity antibody fragment, could be a valuable new treatment for osteoporosis. IMO, CLL is a sound big money buy.