Paris, March 31st, 2011 - Deinove (Alternext Paris: ALDEI), the world’s leading specialist in Deinococcus bacteria for biofuels, green chemistry and antibiotics, is proud to announce that Miroslav Radman (the company’s co-founder and the Joint Chairman of its Scientific Advisory Board) has been presented with the 2011 Lwoff Award by the Federation of European Microbiological Societies (FEMS). Professor Radman has been honoured for his discoveries in the field of the molecular mechanisms of DNA damage repair and their role in carcinogenesis and evolution and for the discovery of the mechanism that enables the bacterium Deinococcus radiodurans to “come back to life” in a few hours by repairing and reorganizing its genetic material.
“We are delighted that Miroslav Radman has won the 2011 FEMS-Lwoff Award. It constitutes a magnificent acknowledgment of his major discoveries concerning Deinococcus - discoveries which prompted the creation of Deinove. Thanks to Miroslav’s patented work, Deinove is now the only company in the world exploiting deinococci-specific genetic tools and using them in industrial applications”, commented Deinove CEO Jacques Biton.
Miroslav Radman’s work has brought to light the deinococci’s unique self-repair ability - a property which has enabled these bacteria to enrich their genome through natural evolution over 3 billion years. It has notably enabled them to develop an exceptional natural ability to exploit biomass by borrowing genes from other living organisms. The ability to integrate these survival genes has made the deinococci exceptionally robust and productive candidates for industrial exploitation.
Launched in honour of Professor André M. Lwoff (the FEMS’ Founding President and winner of the 1965 Nobel Prize in Medicine), the FEMS-Lwoff Award is intended to reward a person or a group of persons (preferably working and residing in Europe) for outstanding work in the field of microbiology. The 4th FEMS Congress (co-organized with the Swiss Microbiological Society) will be held in Geneva on June 26th-30th, 2011. Miroslav Radman will give the Prize Lecture and will be presented with the Lwoff Award and medal.
Professor Miroslav Radman (Director of the “Evolutionary and Medical Molecular Genetics” Unit 571 at the French National Institute for Health and Medical Research (INSERM)) was born in Split (Croatia) and holds dual French and Croatian citizenship. He was awarded a PhD in Sciences from the Université libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) and has since held several positions as Professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles (1973-1983), the NIH (USA) as a visiting Professor, Paris René Descartes University and Faculty of Medicine/Necker Children’s Hospital. He is also Research Director at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) and a founder of the Mediterranean Institute for Life Sciences (MedILS) in Split, Croatia. He is a member of the UNESCO Bioethics Committee and has co-founded 4 biotech companies. Miroslav Radman is a Board Member at the Axa Research Fund and acts a Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister of Croatia. He was authored 191 scientific articles (cited over 10,000 times) and is named as an inventor on 7 patents. As a specialist in DNA mutation and repair mechanisms, one of his most spectacular discoveries was the molecular mechanism of speciation. He has also explained the cause-effect relationship between mutations and cancer.
About DEINOVE
The greentech company Deinove (Alternext Paris: ALDEI) is dedicated to the development and commercial exploitation of innovative technological processes for the production of biofuels and other compounds of industrial or pharmaceutical interest, by exploiting the deinococci’s exceptional natural properties. Deinove successfully floated on the Alternext stock market in April 2010. The company intends to leverage its proprietary bacterial strains, technologies and processes by outlicensing to industrial partners. Deinove has partnered with leading sugar, ethanol and starch company TEREOS in order to develop the Deinol project, which aims at producing cellulosic ethanol in existing industrial facilities. Deinove currently has 25 staff and operates several collaborative R&D programmes with the CNRS (Montpellier and Marseilles), the University of Paris V, INSA Toulouse and the VTT-Technical Research Centre of Finland. It was incorporated in late 2006 under the joint impetus of Philippe Pouletty MD (Managing Partner at the private equity firm Truffle Capital) and Professor Miroslav Radman (Professor of Cell Biology at Paris-Descartes University, a member of the French Academy of Science and winner of the 2003 INSERM Medical Research Prize). Professor Radman elucidated the genetic mechanism behind the extraordinary natural properties of the bacterium Deinococcus (biodiversity and robustness) on which Deinove’s innovation strategy is based. The company’s headquarters are in Paris and it operates a lab in Montpellier (Cap Alpha Technopark), southern France.
Disclaimer: This press release and the information contained herein do not constitute an offer to sell or subscribe to, or a solicitation of an offer to buy or subscribe to, shares in Deinove (“the Company”) in any country. This press release contains forward-looking statements that relate to the Company’s objectives. Such forward-looking statements are based solely on the current expectations and assumptions of the Company’s management and involve risk and uncertainties. Potential risks and uncertainties include, without limitation, whether the Company will be successful in implementing its strategies, whether there will be continued growth in the relevant market and demand for the Company’s products, new products or technological developments introduced by competitors, and risks associated with managing growth. Unfavourable developments in connection with these and other risks and uncertainties described, in particular, in Chapter 4 of the Company’s prospectus prepared in connection with its IPO and on which the French Autorité des Marches Financiers (“AMF”) granted its visa no. 10-014 on March 25 2010, could cause the Company to fail to achieve the objectives expressed by the forward-looking statements above.
Updates are available on the company’s website http://www.deinove.com
