Phylonix Granted U.S. Patent for Apoptosis Drug Screening in Zebrafish.Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers BIOWIRE2K CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BW HealthWire)--March 18, 2002 Phylonix today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office The United States Patent and Trademark Office (PTO or USPTO) is an agency in the United States Department of Commerce that provides patent protection to inventors and businesses for their inventions, and trademark registration for product and intellectual property recently awarded Patent No. 6,299,858 "Methods of Screening Agents for Activity Using Teleosts." The patent covers methods of screening drugs for effects on cell death activity in zebrafish. "This is the first in a family of patents covering both visual and high throughput quantitative methods for drug screening in zebrafish. The claims cover methods of drug delivery, screening compound libraries and analysis using a microplate reader," according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Patricia McGrath, President & CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. . "Pending claims cover other drug screening assays as well as approaches for target and gene identification," Ms. McGrath said. Corresponding patent applications have been filed in major international markets, including Europe and Asia. Zebrafish Background Laboratory animals are critical for defining the mechanisms of drug activity and for testing therapeutic regimens, however, only a few useful models have been developed. Zebrafish has several important advantages for drug screening: they are small, inexpensive to maintain and easily bred in large numbers. Eggs are externally fertilized fer·til·ize v. fer·til·ized, fer·til·iz·ing, fer·til·iz·es v.tr. 1. To cause the fertilization of (an ovum, for example). 2. and a single mating produces 100-200 eggs. Single embryos can be maintained in fluid volumes as small as 100 microliters for the first six days of development and cultured in microtiter wells. Chemicals can then be added directly to the fish water, permeating the intact embryo. Standard microtiter plate A Microtiter plate or microplate is a flat plate with multiple "wells" used as small test tubes. The microplate has become a standard tool in analytical research and clinical diagnostic testing laboratories. readers can be used for measurement, making this format particularly attractive for high thoroughput drug screening. Whole embryo testing has previously been performed on invertebrates, including fruitfly and nematode nematode or roundworm Any of more than 15,000 named and many more unnamed species of worms in the class Nematoda (phylum Aschelminthes). Nematodes include plant and animal parasites and free-living forms found in soil, freshwater, saltwater, and even vinegar , however, these organisms are not closely related to humans and they lack many of the same organs and enzymes. Use as comparative models for toxicity effects in humans is limited. All essential components of vertebrate vertebrate, any animal having a backbone or spinal column. Verbrates can be traced back to the Silurian period. In the adults of nearly all forms the backbone consists of a series of vertebrae. All vertebrates belong to the subphylum Vertebrata of the phylum Chordata. form and organ development are mimicked in the transparent zebrafish and their molecular basis is either identical or similar, underscoring the potential for use in research on human diseases. Company Background Phylonix Pharmaceuticals, Inc. is a Contract Research Organization focused on developing and marketing novel in vivo in vivo /in vi·vo/ (ve´vo) [L.] within the living body. in vi·vo adj. Within a living organism. in vivo adv. zebrafish based assays for therapeutic and industrial screening for cancers, central nervous system and cardiovascular diseases, apoptosis, and organ toxicity. The Company has assembled embryo and chemical sample handling instrumentation to automate analysis. The Company has established a state of the art aquaculture aquaculture, the raising and harvesting of fresh- and saltwater plants and animals. The most economically important form of aquaculture is fish farming, an industry that accounts for an ever increasing share of world fisheries production. facility that can produce thousands of embryos per week. Initially, the Company offers drug screening services, primarily to the pharmaceutical industry. Long term, the Company expects to contribute to the study and treatment of human diseases by genetic screening, gene cloning, and target identification using zebrafish as a model system. |
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