BSI PROTEOMICS ANNOUNCES LAUNCH: THE ARD™ FIVEPACK DYNAMIC CRYSTALLIZATION SYSTEM

--Improves rate of crystallization and reduces protein sample requirements--

Gaithersburg, MD, April 21, 2003 – BSI Proteomics Corporation, a privately owned protein structure solution contract research organization (CRO), has announced the completion of an innovative state of the art protein crystallization system, the ARD™ FivePack, enabling dynamic control of the crystallization process.  The ARD™ FivePack is based on BSI’s flagship technology, the Automated Robotic Dynamic Crystallization System™ (ARD™) that can crystallize proteins in 100 different chambers at 100 different dynamically controlled conditions simultaneously.  Thus, the ARD™ provides unlimited variability of experimental parameters using only 2 μL of protein in each chamber.  The ability to add new reagents, increase and decrease concentration, vary temperature, pH and the rate of fluid exchange is critical to successful crystallization using the ARD™.  Dynamic control and monitoring make the ARD™ fundamentally different from traditional diffusion, microbatch, and high-throughput methods.  It has proven highly effective for generating crystals faster, more successful and more cost efficient. The cost efficient ARD™ has proven to produce high quality crystals more frequently, and in less time, than competing methods.

BSI scientists report a higher crystallization rate while using the ARD™ than their industry competitors.  While working on dozens of different proteins including membrane bound proteins, BSI scientists report a 70% success rate as compared to an industry success rate of approximately 30%. "We have found that it streamlines the crystallization process, producing crystals faster, with less sample, and under variable conditions compared to vapor diffusion." said Dr. Mark Sawicki, BSI Director of Structural Biology.

With the ARD™ FivePack, one crystallographer can setup dozens of FivePack units each capable of crystallizing 5 different proteins with unlimited unique reagent, pH, and temperature conditions.  The FivePack, measuring about 5 by 10 inches, is portable, easy to move, and can be stored in variable temperature environments.  A FivePack can be setup and programmed in less than an hour, consuming only 10 μL of protein.  The nucleation process is monitored using computer controlled microscopes and results are obtained within several hours to a week depending on the length of the experiment.  "The ARD™ FivePacks provide the opportunity to screen more conditions with a fraction of the protein used in traditional methods," said Leonard Arnowitz, President/CTO- BSI Proteomics. "This allows thousands of protein targets from the Human Genome Project to be aggressively screened."

BSI Proteomics actively partners with pharmaceutical, biotechnology, bioinformatics, and genomics companies to provide a rational, structure-based approach to the discovery of new drugs. BSI Proteomics is paving the way for the discovery of new drugs with its Dynamic Crystallization Systems™.

Contact:

Shirley Gotner-Arnowitz

Chief Operating Officer

BSI Proteomics Corporation

301-990-3586

Shirley@bsiproteomics.com