PORTLAND, Ore., May 8, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Znomics, Inc. (OTCBB:ZNOM), a pioneer in the development of the zebrafish as a vertebrate genetic platform to accelerate drug discovery, announced today a collaborative research program with the University of Utah and its Huntsman Cancer Institute (HCI) to develop pre-clinical compounds for the treatment of T-cell leukemia, autoimmune diseases, inflammation and complications related to organ transplantation.
Under the research agreement, Znomics will fund the program and receive full commercial rights to the discoveries. The research will be led by HCI investigator and pediatric oncologist Nikolaus Trede, M.D., Ph.D., a leading expert in the zebrafish immune system. Dr. Trede and his team, in collaboration with Znomics' researchers, plan to develop proprietary T-cell disease assays in the zebrafish. These assays, based on endogenous T-cell markers, will then be used to screen the university's large library of compounds to identify leads to be further developed for clinical testing. Dr. Trede also will join Znomics' scientific advisory board.
"My associates and I are very pleased to launch this program with Znomics, which has excellent technology and scientific capabilities for drug discovery in zebrafish," said Dr. Trede. "Our group has been working to develop assays and identify compounds for novel leukemia therapies for some time. Collaborating with Znomics' scientists on new approaches will accelerate this effort and hopefully yield lead therapeutic compounds that can progress to further clinical evaluation."
Dr. Trede is Assistant Professor, Department of Pediatrics at the University of Utah School of Medicine and attends to cancer patients in the pediatric outpatient clinic. His extensive training includes an M.D. degree from Albert Ludwigs University Medical School in Freiburg, Germany, a Ph.D. from Universite Paris VII, and clinical and research fellowships in immunology and hematology/oncology at the Harvard University-affiliated Children's Hospital and Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
"The zebrafish provides a powerful approach to screen in vivo for compounds that may be useful for treating a wide variety of diseases involving T cells because we can model the biology of the T cell in the whole animal environment," said Znomics' president and chief scientific officer, Roger Cone. "Dr. Trede's screens combined with our ZeneMark(r) Library of knockout mutants can give us a significant competitive advantage, not only in identifying active small molecules, but rapidly validating them and identifying the molecular targets and pathways responsible for the therapeutic effect."
"Our company's drug discovery goal is to have preclinical compounds for three major diseases by 2010," said Znomics chief executive officer, Richard Sessions. "This program in cancer and inflammation, along with our recently launched program in obesity, puts us in good position to achieve the goal, possibly even earlier."
Although financial terms of the Utah collaboration were not disclosed, Znomics will fund research in Dr. Trede's laboratory and has an exclusive option to license the small molecules and all related intellectual property that the parties discover during the collaboration. All financial terms of the licensing have been pre-negotiated.
"I had the pleasure of collaborating with Dr. Trede during our training in Professor Len Zon's laboratory at Harvard," said David Ransom, Ph.D., Znomics' director of genetics and functional genomics. "He and his associates are doing some of the most advanced drug discovery work in zebrafish and I think we'll have a great opportunity to identify and develop novel drugs that may help the kind of young cancer patients that Nick sees. The entire Znomics group is very excited about this collaborative project."
About Znomics
Znomics, Inc. is focused on identifying and developing new pharmaceutical products for treatment of human disorders and diseases. The company's drug discovery platform is based on its catalogued library of mutations in the zebrafish, called the ZeneMark Library. The library, the first in a vertebrate, currently contains more than 11,000 strains of fish representing mutations in approximately half of the known genome. Zebrafish share 80% - 90% of the same genes as humans. The company is leveraging this technology for its internal drug discovery efforts as well as establishing collaborative partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and universities. For more information, visit www.znomics.com
Forward-Looking Statements
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