atugen AG Discovers Novel Cancer Target

Berlin, Germany, January 21, 2003: atugen AG, a private company focused on the elucidation of disease pathways, today announced the identification of a novel cancer target that appears to play an important role in tumor growth and metastasis. atugen’s research group has demonstrated that inhibition of the novel target, Atu027, which has homology to protein kinases, results in blockage of tumor growth of human prostate carcinoma cells in orthotopic mouse models. atugen has demonstrated that human prostate tumor cells engineered to express siRNA molecules against the kinase shows significant reduction or even complete lack of secondary tumors indicating a role of the kinase in tumor progression and metastasis.

The novel target, Atu027, is the result of the company's internal research program on the phosphatidylinositol 3-OH kinase (PI 3-K) pathway. The approach was presented at the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Tumor Suppressor August 2002 Meeting in Cold Spring Harbor, NY. PI 3-K is a central signal transduction molecule controlling a wide range of cellular responses including contributing to increased malignant behavior of cancer cells.

The identification and functional validation of the kinase as PI 3-K downstream effector molecule underscores the strength of the atugen approach to find novel targets. The use of the company’s proprietary mRNA knockdown technologies (GeneBlocs® antisense molecules, improved synthetic siRNA, vector expression systems for siRNA, ribozymes and superior transfection reagents) together with atugen’s expertise in gene function elucidation has to date resulted in 19 functionally validated cancer targets that act in the PI 3-K pathway.

“We are in the process of out-licensing this novel kinase target to partners,” said Dr. Klaus Giese, atugen’s Chief Scientific Officer and Vice President of Research. “The breakthrough in this complex pathway endorses our approach, which aims at providing our partners and in-house projects with the best targets for therapeutic intervention within a given disease cascade. We have already started to dissect a complementary pathway, the TGF-beta/Smad pathway.”

atugen’s intellectual property portfolio consists of an exclusive license from Ribozyme Pharmaceutical Inc. (RPI) for 69 issued patents and more than 100 patent applications in the target validation field relating to ribozymes, antisense molecules, delivery vehicles and related technologies. This estate is complemented by atugen’s own patent filings and several other licenses including a license to practice the RNA interference technology. atugen’s current customers for target validation include Altana Pharma, AstraZeneca, Novo Nordisk, Oxford Glycosciences, Pfizer, Schering AG/Berlex Biosciences and UCSF amongst others.

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Note to Editors:
atugen AG is a technology leader in disease pathway elucidation. Building on successful collaborations with a large number of pharmaceutical and biotechnology partnerships, atugen is positioned to take advantage of the industry’s need to unravel the function of genes and to dissect signal transduction pathways. atugen has already proven the value of its technology and expertise by establishing a portfolio of validated targets and compounds inhibiting the PI 3-kinase pathway, which plays an important role in most cancer types, diabetes, wound healing and other indications. The company offers proprietary KnockDown™ technologies (GeneBlocs® antisense molecules, improved synthetic siRNA, vector expression systems for siRNA and ribozymes) and superior transfection reagents.

atugen AG
Dr. Zisi Fotev, Vice President Business Development Tel: +49 30 9489 2804
fotev@atugen.com 

Media Contact
Fiona Brown, Northbank Communications Tel: +44 (0)20 7321 3875
f.brown@northbankcommunications.com 

GeneBlocs® and KnockDown™ are trademarks of atugen AG. www.atugen.de