Automated Cell Announces Agreement to Support Pre-Clinical Development At Abgenix in Protein Target Validation and Mechanisms of Antibody Action.

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PITTSBURGH--(BW HealthWire)--Feb. 12, 2002

Automated Cell, Inc. (ACI, Pittsburgh, PA) announces the signing of an agreement with Abgenix, Inc. to apply Automated Cell's functional proteomics platform to Abgenix-initiated projects involving both therapeutic antibody candidates and novel protein targets for antibody therapy. The Automated Cell platform provides high-throughput target validation in oncology and immunology using its proprietary platform of disease models, transfection technologies, living-cell functional bioassays and bioinformatics. By looking at the disease-specific function of protein targets and therapeutic antibody candidates against living, human cells in kinetic, multi-phenotypic detail, Automated Cell provides Abgenix in-vitro, mechanism-of-action supportive data for antibody therapeutics in their pipeline as well as validation for the proteins against which the antibodies are targeted.

Greg Landes, Ph.D., Vice President of Product Discovery for Abgenix, said, "We are impressed with the diversity of cellular activities and richness of content that ACI's unique platform can monitor. Furthermore, the data revealed with their platform provides us with important biological insight into the function of our targets, as well as the mechanism(s) of action for our antibody drug candidates. We expect this type of knowledge to enhance our pre-clinical pipeline efforts."

Raymond K. Houck, Automated Cell's CEO, commented, "We are excited to work with Abgenix and are particularly happy that Abgenix is applying ACI's technology to its important pre-clinical opportunities. We shall work extremely hard to deliver value to our partner and look forward to the opportunity to apply our functional technology to their entire developmental pipeline."

Automated Cell, Inc. is a privately held functional proteomics company focused in oncology and immunology that developed its proprietary platform to discover the biological function of proteins important in human disease. Automated Cell's Protein Function Factory(TM) validates, prioritizes and optimizes protein targets, therapeutics and antibodies to accelerate successful discovery and pre-clinical stage drug opportunities. Automated Cell collaborates with pharmaceutical and biotechnology partners, as well as conducting internal drug discovery efforts on its own account. For more information on Automated Cell, visit the company's website at www.automatedcell.com.