Winner Consortium “NeuroAllianz” in the BioPharma Competition counts on UNIarray® Technology

Dortmund, Germany and New Jersey, USA, October 9, 2008: Protagen AG, a leading provider of GMP compliant protein analytical services, protein bioinformatics, and protein biochips has won the BMBF’s BioPharma competition jointly with consortium “NeuroAllianz”. The twelve project partners will develop therapeutic as well as diagnostic approaches in the field of neurodegenerative diseases from bench to market under the direction of Professor Christa E. Mueller and Professor Alexander Pfeifer. Protagen supports this effort with the proprietary UNIarray® technology platform.

In 2007, the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) initiated the BioPharma competition with a funding volume of 100 million Euro. The BioPharma strategy aims to promote biotechnologically produced drugs and to revitalize the German pharmaceutical industry. Three winner consortia were selected out of 37 applications. In the first three years, each consortium will receive 20 million Euro afterwards the remaining 40 million Euro will be allocated. The consortium “NeuroAllianz” counts on the performance of the UNIarray® technology platform to accelerate the development of indication- specific diagnostics.

UNIarray® is a unique technology platform for the development of novel diagnostics based on indication-specific autoantibody patterns in patient sera. These indication-specific autoantibody patterns have already proven to be present in several autoimmune diseases, neurodegenerative disorders, and in cancer, as well as in apparently healthy individuals. Therefore, the systematic and indication-specific determination of autoantibody patterns will serve as a unique basis to address hitherto unmet diagnostic needs. In addition, UNIarray® serves as a platform for the development of product- specific companion diagnostics and patient stratification for clinical studies. Currently, in-house research at Protagen is presently focused on novel diagnostics for Morbus Parkinson, Alzheimer’s disease, Prostate Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis and Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis.

About Protagen AG
Protagen AG (www.protagen.de) is a leading provider of products, services and software solutions for protein research with sites in Dortmund, Germany, and Chester, New Jersey, USA. Technology innovations of Protagen are UNIclone®, a patented platform for development and use of protein expression libraries, and UNIchip®, a versatile and highly efficient family of products for the development of antibodies, as well as UNIarray®, a unique technology base for the development of new diagnostics.

Contact
Dr. Stefan Müllner
CEO
Protagen AG
Otto-Hahn-Str. 15
44227 Dortmund
Tel: +49 (0) 231 9742 6300
Fax: +49 (0) 231 9742 6301
E-Mail: info@protagen.de

Media Enquiries
Dr. Holger Bengs
Biotech Consulting
Tel: +49 (0) 69 6199 4273
Fax: +49 (0) 69 6199 4249
E-Mail: info@holgerbengs.de

This release was published on openPR.