Geron Awarded Grants of $2.4 Million to Help Develop Telomerase-Based Cancer Drugs and Diagnostics; Research is Focused on "Immortalizing Enzyme" in Tumor Cells.

MENLO PARK, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 13, 1995--Geron Corporation today announced that it has been awarded research grants of approximately $2.4 million to assist in the development of new cancer therapeutic and diagnostic products based on telomerase -- an "immortalizing enzyme" that has been shown to be active in many different kinds of cancer.

The funding organizations include: the National Cancer Institute (NCI), as part of the National Cooperative Drug Discovery Group (NCDDG) program; the California Breast Cancer Research Program, and the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) Program.

The NCI funding will be used to establish an NCDDG collaboration between Geron, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSKCC) and its affiliate--Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, and the NCI, with the goal of identifying and developing a telomerase inhibitor for treating a broad spectrum of human malignancies. The $2 million, five-year NCDDG grant will be shared by Geron and Memorial Sloan-Kettering as they work together to develop a lead telomerase inhibitor for eventual testing in humans.

Geron and its academic collaborators have identified telomerase as a highly specific and nearly universal marker for cancer, with an apparently essential genetic function for immortal cells, making it a promising target for anti-tumor therapeutics. Research published to date on telomerase has shown that the enzyme is present in the vast majority of malignant cancer samples examined, but is not found in the normal tissues from which those cancers arose -- suggesting that telomerase inhibition may be a widely effective therapeutic approach, with potentially limited effects.

Geron's role in the NCDDG will be to discover and optimize new chemical entities directed against telomerase. The company will also test the resulting lead compound in human tumor cell lines. Memorial Sloan-Kettering, a leading center both in cancer research and therapy, will apply its expertise to studies that extend the understanding of the role of telomerase in cell and animal models of malignancy. The NCI will support the NCDDG by providing chemistry, pharmacology and other technical expertise for facilitating the drug discovery process.

The second grant, awarded to Geron by the California Breast Cancer Research Program, focused on the development of diagnostic tests for breast cancer based on telomerase expression in malignant cells. This grant provides funding in the amount of $228,000 over a two-year period.

The third grant, awarded to Geron by the Small Business Innovative Research (SBIR) program, supports the development of highly sensitive telomerase assays as potential cancer diagnostic and prognostic products. These assays will be used to detect the presence of immortalized cells in breast, colon, prostate and bladder cancer specimens. The company was awarded a six-month Phase I SBIR grant in the amount of $96,000 to develop its telomerase-based diagnostic and prognostic assays.

Geron Corporation, a privately-held company founded in 1992, is applying its understanding of the genomics of aging to the development of novel drugs primarily for the treatment of age-related diseases, including cancer. Specifically, the company's research programs seek to restore normal function in aging cells, and to induce tumor cell death by inhibiting telomerase -- an enzyme thought to be responsible for the immortality of cancer cells. Geron has raised $31.1 million to date in private equity financings.

CONTACT: Geron Corporation

Jeryl Hilleman, 415/473-7700

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StratiPoint Group, Inc.

Carole Melis, 415/326-0420