The company was founded in Switzerland in 1998 by the Swiss surgeon and proteome researcher Marc Reymond. Co-investors are Nextech Venture and Aventic Partners, both of Zurich, Switzerland. Lead investors in the current financing round are Earlybird Venture Capital, of Hamburg, and Heidelberg Innovation, of Heidelberg. It plans to expand staff to about 50 by the end of 2002 and to invest in an additional facility during the next half-year. Currently, one potential target has passed such validation. In in vivo assays the proteins are validated as potential drug targets. If we find them, it¿s potentially a diagnostic marker,¿ von Horstig said. ¿We take these antibodies to check blood ¿ and in case of colorectal cancer, stool ¿ for the proteins. When researchers identify promising proteins, they generate antibodies against them. Researchers also may search for early markers for metastases, for example, by comparing metastatic and nonmetastatic tumors. Searching drug and vaccination targets or diagnostic markers, the company compares protein patterns in healthy and pathologic cells derived from the same patient. ❻efore the search for targets and markers begins, partners in the clinics clearly define the relevant clinical questions and therefore save time and money in the research process.¿ The clinical network also is ¿comparable to an outsourced research and development department,¿ von Horstig said.
The cells, together with data on tumor stage, are stored in the company¿s bank of human tumor tissue samples, which currently contains several thousand samples.įeeding the tissue bank is not the only task of clinicians in the network. ❾uroProteome has a proprietary technology enabling our clinical partners to isolate epithelial cells, healthy and cancerous, with 95 percent purity from the resected tissue,¿ von Horstig said. The clinical partners provide the tissue samples, which are taken directly from cancer surgeries. It searches these proteins by comparing samples of healthy and pathologic tissue. The company focuses on proteins related to epithelial cancers such as lung and colorectal cancer, liver cancer and pancreatic cancer. Thus, we avoid results that give rise to hope for mice, but turn out useless for man,¿ EuroProteome Chief Financial Officer Walter von Horstig told BioWorld International. ¿We search clinically relevant proteins directly in human tissue. The company wants to raise revenues by licensing validated drug and vaccination targets and markers to pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies. A substantial part of the money is expected to further improve the company¿s network of over 30 clinical physicians and researchers, which currently extends to Germany, France, Switzerland, the U.S. With the proceeds, Hennigsdorf, Germany-based proteome research specialist EuroProteome plans to fuel the growth of staff and infrastructure. BORNHEIM, Germany ¿ EuroProteome AG completed its second financing round, raising EUR9.5 million (US$8.77 million).
0 kommentar(er)
