Curis, Inc. Issued U.S. Patent Covering Drug Discovery Assays

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--June 13, 2006--Curis, Inc. (NASDAQ: CRIS - News), a therapeutic drug development company, today announced the receipt of U.S. patent number 7,060,450, which covers screening assays for antagonists and agonists of the Hedgehog signaling pathway. This patent includes cell-based assays that use a Hedgehog responsive promoter element containing Gli binding sites as the read-out. Gli expression levels are important in identifying potential Hedgehog pathway targeted drug candidates since Gli levels are higher when the Hedgehog pathway is turned on, or agonized, and lower when Hedgehog signaling is inhibited, or antagonized. Further, because these assays report on the final step of Hedgehog pathway activation, they are effective in identifying compounds that modulate Hedgehog signaling at virtually any point in the signaling pathway.