Medical University of South Carolina and Lumera Sign Co-Development Contract to Build Protein Array

Lumera Corporation (Bothell, WA), an emerging leader in the field of nanotechnology, announced that it has executed a letter of intent with the Medical University of South Carolina to purchase its newly released ProteomicProcessor(TM) Biosensor instrument. Additionally, MUSC and Lumera announced they will co-develop a new protein chip, based on Lumera's NanoCapture(TM) HPT technology, which will be aimed at the growing drug discovery and toxicology market. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"Our agreement with MUSC represents a significant milestone for our Bioscience division," said Lumera CEO Tom Mino. "We believe the researchers at MUSC are truly innovative in their approach to developing next generation toxicology methods aimed at speeding up the drug discovery process. We see great potential for the jointly developed intellectual property."

Lumera's NanoCapture™ HPT technology is a proprietary surface coating and related methods, which allows proteins to be bound to a surface and remain biologically active. "In the emerging field of protein arrays, no standard has been created for attaching proteins to a chip. We believe that with our HPT technology, we are going to be able to define the standard," said Ron Dudek, Lumera's Bioscience Product Group Manager.

"Lumera's approach is entirely unique," said Dr. Craig Beeson, Associate Professor in the South Carolina College of Pharmacy at MUSC. "With the combined power of Lumera's ProteomicProcessor™ and NanoCapture(TM) HPT technologies, we feel as though we can catapult our research in mitochondrial biology to the forefront of the drug toxicology screening arena."

According to market research firm Business Communications Company, Inc., the U.S. market for in vitro toxicology is currently estimated at $1.1 billion. Forecasted to grow at an average annual growth rate of 12.1%, this market is expected to reach $1.96 billion by 2007.

Although financial terms were not disclosed, under this agreement, Lumera retains rights to commercialize all jointly developed intellectual property.

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