Antigen Discovery Inc. Awarded a SBIR Phase II Grant to Commercialize Novel Antigens...

Antigen Discovery Inc. Awarded a SBIR Phase II Grant to Commercialize Novel
Antigens for Serodiagnostic Products and Vaccine Development

IRVINE, Calif., July 3 /PRNewswire/ -- Antigen Discovery Inc. ("ADI",
formerly ImmPORT Therapeutics Inc.), a leader in high throughput
antigen/biomarker discovery using advanced genomics and proteomics tools,
announced today that the Company was awarded a Phase II SBIR from the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and the National Center
for Research Resources (NCRR). The $3 million grant will fund efforts to
further develop ADI's protein microarray based serodiagnostic platform for
applications in biodefense and emerging infectious diseases. ADI will
collaborate with investigators at the Proteomics Core facility of the Pacific
Southwest Regional Center of Excellence (PSW RCE), located at the University
of California, Irvine.
"The major bottleneck that limits the translation of readily available
genomic information into the development of next generation diagnostics,
vaccines and therapeutics, is the continued lack of effective antigen and
biomarker discovery tools," said Dr. Xiaowu Liang, CEO of ADI. "We are
grateful that the SBIR program continues to fund ADI and our UCI collaborators
in the further development of this exciting new technology platform that truly
revolutionizes the screening and detection of disease markers."
"The focus of this grant is to commercialize some of the broad
applications of the platform technology that were developed during previous
funding phases. The establishment of a Good Manufactuing Practices (GMP)
facility, and a Clinical Research Lab will enable us to offer diagnostic
products and services to physicians, point of care facilities, developers of
novel vaccines, and pharmaceutical researchers," added Dr. Huw Davies, the
Principal Investigator on the SBIR grant. "By using our novel protein array
systems and statistical algorithms, we can rapidly discover antigen sets that
will provide serological tests that discriminate between different infections,
or even between different stages of the same infection."
About Antigen Discovery Inc.
Antigen Discovery Inc. (formerly ImmPORT Therapeutics Inc.) is a privately
held biotech company with innovative technologies that offer unprecedented
advantages for the rapid development of safer and more effective vaccines and
diagnostic products. The Company's high throughput proteome microarray chip
fabrication and screening platform provides an order of magnitude of
improvement over current antigen/biomarker discovery technologies. The
technology also has potential applications in the identification of markers
for autoimmune disease and cancer.
SOURCE Antigen Discovery Inc.

Keith B. Hoffman, Business Development of Antigen Discovery Inc.,
+1-949-679-4068, Khoffman@antigendiscovery.com