Epitome Biosystems Awarded $500,000 Phase IIB SBIR Grant For Development Of Protein Phosphorylation Measurement Products

WALTHAM, Mass., Dec. 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Epitome Biosystems(TM) announced today that it has been awarded a Phase IIB Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant to support further development of the Company's protein phosphorylation-profiling product. The product is an antibody array that incorporates Epitome's proprietary EpiTag(TM) technology to enable qualitative and quantitative measurements of protein phosphorylation, an important readout of cellular function. The National Science Foundation awarded the grant titled "Proteome Epitope Tags-Based Antibody Arrays for High-Throughput, Proteome- Wide Kinase Pathway Profiling," which provides $500,000 toward the development of a product for measuring key tyrosine phosphorylation sites that have important roles in many cellular and drug responses.

"This new grant will help us extend our product offering to include a first of its kind tool for routine profiling of hundreds of phosphorylation events in a single measurement," said Neal Gordon, Ph.D., President, Epitome Biosystems(TM). "Our products provide comprehensive assessments of biological function with applications across drug discovery and development. We anticipate these products will assist in the preclinical and clinical development of drugs targeting diseases with abnormal signaling, such as kinase inhibitors."

Epitome's EpiTag(TM) technology enables the reliable and cost-effective development of antibody pairs for the quantitative measurement of proteins in "sandwich" assays. The technology is flexible and has been applied to the development of antibody arrays for broad profiling of intracellular signaling events, as well as products for highly quantitative protein measurements in multiplex formats. Sandwich antibody pairs provide highly specific and sensitive protein measurements but are typically cumbersome to develop and are limited in availability. Epitome's approach overcomes these limitations and facilitates rapid assay development and targeting of novel measurements.

Previously, Epitome received a $500,000 Phase II grant to develop products that profile cell signaling pathways, including Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinase (MAPK). The newly awarded Phase IIB Supplement brings the total grants for this program to $1,000,000 and will be used to broaden the product to include a more extensive representation of tyrosine signaling.

About Epitome Biosystems(TM)

Epitome Biosystems(TM) is applying its protein measurement system to increase the productivity of drug discovery and development and improve the understanding of patient variability and disease. The Company's EpiTag(TM) technology delivers highly specific, quantitative measurements of any protein or proteins in a user-friendly format. Epitome's technology is validated, scaleable and can be applied broadly to assessing protein functional states or activities, including phosphorylation. For more information, visit www.epitomebiosystems.com.

Epitome Biosystems(TM)

CONTACT: Neal F. Gordon, Ph.D., President of Epitome Biosystems(TM),+1-781-478-1414, ngordon@epitomebiosystems.com

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