RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Dec. 1 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Integrated systems biology company Icoria, Inc. , announced today that it has been granted U.S. Patent # 6,819,787 relating to the automated detection, analysis and quantification of histological specimens. This patent supports the Company’s TissueAnalytics(R) system of automated tissue analysis software which is currently being tested by customers searching for indications of toxicity in the drug discovery and development process. This latest patent extends Icoria’s U.S. intellectual property portfolio to 27 patents.
“Our intellectual property gives Icoria a competitive advantage in the field of automated tissue analysis by allowing us to perform pathologist- guided quantification of subtle tissue changes that are relevant to toxicity and efficiacy,” said Peter Johnson, Chief Business Officer and Chief Medical Officer. “This patent also demonstrates the continued advances we are making as we expand the capabilities of advanced tissue analysis to help pathologists and researchers gather and analyze data from pre-clinical research and clinical trials.”
Icoria’s TissueAnalytics(R) system combines state-of-the-art image analysis with a robust computational platform to automatically analyze prepared tissue slides for morphological variation. The system, which extends the detection capability of the human eye, enables detection of subtle effects of drugs and disease that may otherwise be missed in standard manual analyses.
“The commercial ramifications of this capability are significant, since this approach has the potential to assist pathologists in the process of detecting drug effects during pre-clinical and clinical trials, a process that is currently manually intensive, expensive and time consuming,” said Heiri Gugger, President and CEO of Icoria. “We are presently working to leverage our technological and proprietary advantages into further opportunities with existing and potential new commercial partners.”
About Icoria
Icoria is an integrated systems biology company applying its proprietary platform to the discovery and development of safer, more effective drugs and agrichemicals. Icoria has major contracts with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, Bayer CropScience, the Monsanto Company, Pioneer Hi-Bred International (a subsidiary of DuPont) and L’Oreal Inc. 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 using 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: Media-Public Relations of Icoria, Inc., +1-919-425-2999; orBrian Ritchie or Mark Vincent of EURO RSCG Life NRP, +1-212-845-4200
Web site: http://www.icoria.com/