Trana Discovery Completes $720,000 Series A Investment Round

CARY, NC (December 21, 2009) – Trana Discovery, Inc., an infectious disease drug discovery technology company, today announced the completion of its Series A round of funding. To date, the company has raised $720,000 in angel funding to commercialize technology that helps to discover new drugs for the treatment of bacterial, viral, and fungal infectious diseases. With the addition of a recent $700,000 contract from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) for the screening of 300,000 compounds at Southern Research, organizations and investors have invested over $1.4 million in the technology.

Trana Discovery's screening assays identify compounds that work through a unique mechanism of action: inhibition of the target pathogen’s ability to use transfer RNA (tRNA) essential for propagation. Trana's HIV high-throughput screening (HTS) assay is capable of identifying compounds that interfere with the use of tRNA by the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the cause of AIDS. As the result of a successful pilot study, NIAID approved an additional $700,000 contract with Southern Research Institute in order to screen an additional 300,000 compounds and to conduct confirmatory testing of selected lead compounds. The use of Trana assays can provide licensing opportunities for exclusive rights to new drug classes and reduce the cost and time for drug discovery.

Trana engaged with Gary Shipman, managing partner of Shipman & Wright, LLP in forming Trana Discovery Ventures I, LLC, which led to the completion of the Series A investment round. As a result of the investment, Shipman will join Trana's Board of Directors.

"We are delighted to welcome Gary as a new board member,” said Steve Peterson, CEO of Trana Discovery. “He was instrumental in securing the funding that we believe will take us to a cash-positive position."

Peterson expects that future research and development will be funded from revenues generated through discovered compounds and technology license agreements.

"We saw the promise of Trana technology of opening entirely new classes of anti-infectives for various human pathogens," said Shipman, whose Wilmington, North Carolina-based law firm specializes in complex business litigation and placing private capital investments. "Like the people at Trana Discovery, we share a passion in helping mankind fight new and emerging diseases."

The technology applies to a broad spectrum of infectious diseases. An HTS assay for Staphylococcus aureus bacteria is currently under development. The company is investigating other prime disease targets for future assay developments and new applications of the technology.

Trana Discovery is seeking organizations interested in licensing lead compounds from its research. Also, the company is seeking organizations that hold collections of compounds ready to be screened for bioactivity against HIV, and compounds with known bioactivity against HIV but unknown mechanism of action to identify candidates for drug development. Organizations should contact Trana at info@tranadiscovery.com or call 866-390-3452 (toll free) or +1-919-342-6192.

About Trana Discovery, Inc.

Trana Discovery, an anti-infective drug discovery technology company, helps its partners find new classes of drugs for the treatment of serious bacterial, viral, and fungal infectious diseases. Our proprietary assays identify compounds that work through a unique mechanism of action: inhibition of the target pathogen's ability to use transfer RNA (tRNA) essential for propagation. The use of high-throughput screening assays developed by Trana Discovery will reduce the cost and time for drug discovery. Our assays provide licensing opportunities for exclusive rights to new drug classes. Trana Discovery has licensed the patented technology emanating from 20 years of research conducted at North Carolina State University, and holds patents that expand on this core technology and its use in high throughput screening. The company is located in Cary, North Carolina. For more information, please visit www.tranadiscovery.com.