The new assay extends the range of services available from ProImmune for immune system monitoring and antigen discovery 

Oxford UK, 24 September 2007 - ProImmune Ltd., a leading provider of quality research reagents for monitoring the immune system and services for antigen discovery, has announced the launch of its new MHC-peptide binding assay for Class II HLA alleles, adding to the series of discovery services for Class I HLA already available from the Company. 

The new Class II REVEAL™ binding assay for HLA alleles DR1-4 is a powerful cell-free in vitro assay that can rapidly predict T-cell antigens in any protein sequence. It is widely applicable across many disease areas such as cancer, infectious diseases, autoimmunity and in transplantation, and is ideally suited to therapeutic programmes with time pressures, such as the development of vaccines for emerging diseases.

Unlike traditional methods for discovering T-cell antigens, such as functional cellular assays, the Class II REVEAL™ assay does not use precious patient samples, and uniquely determines the HLA restriction of each antigen in a single step. Class II REVEAL™ therefore offers a significant timesaving advantage, and reduces the overall cost and risk of discovery projects.

The launch of Class II REVEAL™ follows ProImmune’s recent extension of its range of MHC Class II Ultimer™ staining reagents with alleles DR2 and DR3 to cover HLA DR1 to 4. Class II Ultimers™ can be used to conclusively validate antigens discovered with REVEAL™, and in further monitoring and phenotyping of targeted immune responses, for example, in clinical trials. The new assay will be available to customers from the end of October 2007. 

Commenting on the launch, Dr. Nikolai Schwabe, CEO of ProImmune, said: “Class II REVEAL™ helps to overcome a significant barrier in understanding key helper T-cell immune responses in detail, and to harness such responses in the design of highly targeted therapies across a very wide range of diseases. The launch of Class II REVEAL™ underlines our strategy to provide high quality products and services that are flexible to meet customer needs and improve understanding of the immune system.”

-ENDS-

For more information, please contact:

At ProImmune:

Dr Nikolai Schwabe, CEO

Tel: +44 (0)870 042 7279

Email: nschwabe@proimmune.com   

Media enquiries:

Lorna Cuddon, Gemma Price, Katie Odgaard

Northbank Communications

Tel: +44 (0)207 286 3002

Email: g.price@northbankcommunications.com  

Notes to Editors:

About ProImmune - www.proimmune.com 

ProImmune Ltd is a private biotechnology company with its headquarters in Oxford, UK, that specializes in providing antigen discovery services and research reagents for monitoring the condition of the immune system.  ProImmune has a wide range of customers from leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, as well as clinical and academic research institutes throughout the world.  The Company, founded in November 1999, has secured R&D funding from several DTI Smart, EUREKA and EU Framework VI project grants and has been profitable since its inception. ProImmune owns a portfolio of international patents and patent applications protecting its core products and technologies. The Company also has offices in the USA.