RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Dec. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Icoria, Inc. , a biotechnology company using systems biology to discover new biomarkers to enhance drug and agrichemical discovery and development, announced today that it has received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a pending patent application directed to its metabolomics and data coherence platforms.
The company expects that the patent, "Methods and Systems for Analyzing Complex Biochemical Systems," will be issued in the first quarter of 2005. The patent is the first in a series of pending patent-applications Icoria has filed relating to the application of novel computational methods and analytical tools designed to further its capabilities in the fields of systems biology and metabolomics.
The allowed patent claims recited in the Notice of Allowance cover a means for collecting, storing and characterizing chemical components in biological samples using liquid chromatography/mass spectroscopy (LC-MS), gas chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC-MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The patent also covers methods for linking the identified chemical components to metabolites in biochemical pathways.
"The ability to capture, analyze and store complex biochemical data obtained using mass spectrometry and pathway analysis is the foundation of our approach to biomarker discovery," said Thomas J. Colatsky, Ph.D., Vice President, Health Care Research. "We believe the Notice of Allowance for these claims not only demonstrates our leadership position in the field of metabolomics, but also gives us a proprietary advantage in the integration of multiple complex data streams so that we can understand disease, drug action and biological function at the system level - the goal of systems biology."
Data coherence represents the ability to combine and interpret disparate data sets. Metabolomics is one of three technologies Icoria uses to help companies develop safer and more effective drugs. Using data coherence, Icoria can merge data from its metabolomics, gene expression profiling, and quantitative tissue analysis platforms to help its clients discover unique biomarkers and develop proprietary therapeutics across a range of disease states, including liver injury and metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes. Icoria's development of data coherence tools is supported in part by an Advanced Technology Program grant from the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
About Icoria
Icoria, Inc. is a biotech company dedicated to deciphering the complexity of biological processes through the application of systems biology to identify biomarkers for drug discovery and development, diagnostics and to develop novel agrichemicals. Icoria has major contracts with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the Monsanto Company and Pioneer Hi-Bred International (a subsidiary of DuPont). Icoria also has a major grant from the National Institute of Standards & Technology's Advanced Technology Program. For more information, visit http://www.icoria.com/ .
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including statements regarding the Company's expectations for its systems biology platform. Such forward-looking statements are based on management's current expectations and are subject to a number of risks, factors and uncertainties that may cause actual results, events and performance to differ materially from those referred to in the forward-looking statements. These risks, factors and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, Icoria's early stage of development, history of net losses, technological and product development uncertainties, reliance on research collaborations, uncertainty of additional funding and ability to protect its patents and proprietary rights. Certain of these and other risks are identified in Icoria's annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003 and in its quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2004, each filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company does not intend to update any of the forward-looking statements after the date of this release to conform these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations, except as may be required by law.
Icoria, Inc.CONTACT: Icoria, Inc. Media-Public Relations, +1-919-425-2999; or BrianRitchie or Mark Vincent of EURO RSCG Life NRP, +1-212-845-4200
Web site: http://www.icoria.com/