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Syntrix Biosystems licenses exclusive wordwide rights to bivalent
inhibitors of glutathione S-transferases from the University of
Washington
Auburn, WA, August 1, 2005. Syntrix Biosystems, Inc. announced today that it
has obtained an exclusive license from the University of Washington (UW)
for all human therapeutic rights related to the use of jointly developed
potent glutathione S-transferase (GST) inhibitors. GST is involved
in mediating resistance to common cancer chemotherapeutics and is
involved in the cell signaling pathway responsible for simulating the
bone marrow to produce white blood cells. A depression of white
blood cells is a common side effect of chemotherapy and place patients
at risk for life-threatening infections. Recent evidence also
suggests that the Plasmodium GST may be involved in mediating
drug-resistance in malaria. The newly licensed
intellectual property was developed as a joint project with Dr. William
Atkins at the UW with funding from the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Dr. Atkins reports on the properties of some representative inhibitors
in the journal Biochemistry (vol. 42(35):10418-28, 2003).
"We at Syntrix Biosystems are committed to
developing innovative small molecule-based therapeutic products to treat
cancer and the side-effects of cancer treatment," said John A. Zebala,
M.D., Ph.D. President and CEO of Syntrix Biosystems. "These bivalent
inhibitors represent a valuable addition to our intellectual property
portfolio, and enhance our drug candidate pipeline by providing a
powerful approach to stimulating the bone marrow of patients receiving
chemotherapy or treating GST-mediated resistance to chemotherapy."
Syntrix Biosystems is a
privately held biotechnology company founded in 1999 with research
and development facilities located in Auburn, WA. The company
is developing products that meet the needs of the pharmaceutical,
biotechnology, and academic research markets. The Syntrix
Biosystems website is located at
www.syntrixbio.com.
For more information contact:
John A. Zebala, M.D.,
Ph.D.
President and CEO
jzebala@syntrixbio.com
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