OLIGOMERIX Awarded NIH Grant to Develop Novel Biomarkers for Alzheimer... ( NEW YORK Feb. 25 /- OLIGOMERIX Inc. t...)

OLIGOMERIX Awarded NIH Grant to Develop Novel Biomarkers for Alzheimer's Disease

Date:2/25/2009

NEW YORK, Feb. 25 /PRNewswire/ -- OLIGOMERIX, Inc. today announced the receipt of a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I grant for $323,000 from the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The focus of the program is to develop novel biomarker assays for Alzheimer's disease (AD). Tau oligomers in complex with beta-amyloid or apolipoprotein E (apoE) proteins will be monitored in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma from AD patients. The work will be done in collaboration with Drs. Lawrence S. Honig and Richard Mayeux at the Taub Institute for Research on Alzheimer's disease and the Aging Brain at Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC).

There is a critical unmet need for novel biomarkers for AD, both with respect to differential diagnosis of AD at first evaluation, and for monitoring disease progression. Presently, definitive diagnosis of AD can only be accomplished after death, through brain autopsy. There are no validated biomarkers from patient samples such as CSF or plasma that predict progression or regression of AD. OLIGOMERIX plans to evaluate novel AD biomarkers based on the paradigm of protein-protein interactions. This strategy may enable more specific diagnosis and disease monitoring, for better patient management.

"Our focus is to develop assays that can be used for drug discovery for AD," stated James Moe, Ph.D., MBA, President and CEO of OLIGOMERIX "Any validated assays developed under this program for disease staging or definitive diagnosis of AD will be potential out-licensing opportunities for the company."

ABOUT OLIGOMERIX

OLIGOMERIX, Inc. is a biopharmaceutical company founded in 2006 located at Audubon Biomedical Science and Technology Park, CUMC. The Company is developing a drug discovery platform that includes biomarker assays for discovering small molecule inhibitors of tau oligomer formation that are nove
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OLIGOMERIX Awarded NIH Grant to Develop Novel Biomarkers for Alzheimer...( NEW YORK Feb. 25 /- OLIGOMERIX Inc. t...)