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Biotech / Medical : Ciphergen Biosystems(CIPH): -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tuck who wrote (129)	6/3/2003 10:23:08 PM
From: tuck	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 510

FREMONT, Calif., June 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Ciphergen Biosystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: CIPH - News) announced today that its ProteinChip Technology is being employed by multiple groups, including Health Canada's National Microbiology Lab, Beijing Clinical SARS Testing Center and the Genomic Institute of Singapore, in the hunt for novel protein biomarkers associated with Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS). Ciphergen's Field Scientists and Biomarker Discovery Center® personnel are providing technical support for these projects, as appropriate. In general, these groups are employing Ciphergen's patented Expression Difference Mapping(TM) protocols on nasopharyngeal (throat swabs), serum and other samples using the ProteinChip System with an initial goal of discovering protein biomarkers that could be used as rapid diagnostic tests. A number of potential biomarkers have already been discovered in SARS patient samples. These biomarkers are being identified and will be further evaluated for their utility in developing accurate diagnostic tests for SARS. If successful, therapeutic and/or vaccine strategies based on insights provided from these biomarkers may be pursued as well. In the space of only a few months, over 8300 cases of the SARS virus have been reported in 30 countries, with over 750 suspected deaths to date. A worldwide effort has been mobilized to deal with this potential epidemic; much of that effort to date has focused on sequencing the corona virus genome, which is suspected to be responsible for SARS. A number of groups have publicized gene-based approaches to diagnosing SARS; however, these approaches currently show significant false negative results. William E. Rich, President and CEO of Ciphergen Biosystems, stated, "We have had considerable success in the past in applying our technology to various clinical questions in the infectious disease area, such as our work on HIV with the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center, and ProteinChip technology is now being actively employed to SARS research as well." Working in collaboration with Health Canada, Ciphergen has also used ProteinChip technology to identify one of the SARS coronavirus proteins. This protein corresponds to an amino acid sequence encoded by the genome of the SARS coronavirus TOR2 isolate published by the Genome Sciences Centre, and it reacts with antibodies from the blood of SARS patients. Ciphergen sequenced parts of the protein and determined the mass of protein fragments on a ProteinChip tandem MS interface. Comparison of this information with genome sequence information confirmed the protein's identity. A patent application has been filed on the protein.<< snip Cheers, Tuck