Neugenesis in the News
NEUGENESIS DEVELOPS DRUG DISCOVERY TECHNOLOGY AND IS AWARDED KEY PATENT FOR MONOCLONAL ANTIBODY PRODUCTION
PRINCETON, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 11, 1997--Neugenesis Corporation announced today that it has received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for its technology to express heteromeric proteins in any filamentous fungus. In addition to protecting the company's novel protein expression systems, this patent forms the foundation for Neugenesis' unique combinatorial biology platform for the discovery and development of novel biotherapeutics. This technology allows Neugenesis to rapidly and efficiently generate combinatorial libraries, identify lead candidates, and develop superior drugs.
"This patent represents a cornerstone for Neugenesis' technologies, and we are pleased with its broadness and scope," said Ronald E. Cape, Ph.D., chairman of Neugenesis. "The ability to produce complex molecules in our proprietary host systems is integral to our combinatorial biology platform. Having both the technology and intellectual property in place, we can now aggressively pursue the drug discovery applications."
Neugenesis' technology provides a powerful approach to generating and screening libraries of novel, assembled, heteromeric (multi-subunit) proteins such as monoclonal antibodies, human hormones, and cell surface receptors. "Our proprietary technology utilizes and expands on the unique biology of the filamentous fungus, Neurospora crassa," said W. Dorsey Stuart, Ph.D., author of the allowed patent, and president/CEO of Neugenesis. "We have leveraged the ability of filamentous fungi to fuse and form multinucleate strains. These multinucleate strains can then be used to produce complex combinatorial libraries as a source of new therapeutics."
Neugenesis has designed its drug discovery system to utilize pre-existing functional biological architectures, with new compounds predictably occupying the shape/space around the starting compound. Because these starting compounds have been selected for their biological functions during millions of years of evolution, the new compounds generated will have a high likelihood of being useful new biotherapeutics.
Neugenesis completed the first stage of development of its drug discovery technology in part through an SBIR (Small Business Innovation Research) Phase I grant from NIH. The company produced a functional, intact humanized monoclonal antibody during this recently completed program. The specific antibody used reacts with a clinically significant antigen found on human breast cancer cells, although any heteromeric protein could be produced through this technology, and used as a starting point for Neugenesis' drug discovery strategy.
Neugenesis recently applied for an SBIR Phase II grant to continue the development of its technology. Under this grant, the company will apply its combinatorial biology technology to a therapeutically valuable monoclonal antibody. Neugenesis will use this starting compound to demonstrate the value of its core technology in developing lead biotherapeutic candidates, and engineering complex proteins.
Neugenesis Corporation is a biotechnology company dedicated to the discovery and development of novel biotherapeutics. The company has developed proprietary platform technology for building, screening, and expressing combinatorial libraries of novel, intact, and assembled macromolecules, such as monoclonal antibodies, human hormones...