Sangamo BioSciences Presents Data at ICAAC Demonstrating 'In Vivo' Protection Against HIV Infection by CCR5-ZFN T...( Preclinical Animal Data Demonstra...)

Preclinical Animal Data Demonstrates Selective Survival Advantage of

ZFN-Treated Immune Cells after HIV Infection and Reduced Viral Loads

WASHINGTON and RICHMOND, Calif., Oct. 28 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) announced today the presentation of data demonstrating that human CD4 T-cells can be made permanently resistant to HIV infection by treatment with zinc finger DNA-binding protein nucleases (ZFN(TM)) resulting in an increase in CD4 T-cell counts and a reduction in viral load in an animal model of HIV infection. The presentation, entitled, "Establishment of HIV Resistant CD4 T-cells Using Engineered Zinc Finger Protein Nucleases (ZFNs)" is taking place today at the joint meeting of the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC) and the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) in Washington, DC.

"We are very excited about these data and our collaboration with Sangamo to develop an HIV/AIDS therapeutic," said Carl June, M.D., Director of Translational Research at the Abramson Family Cancer Research Institute at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and a co-author of the study. "The ability to prevent immune cells from becoming infected by HIV has the potential to provide long term control of both the opportunistic infections characteristic of AIDS as well as the virus itself. We look forward to bringing this program into the clinic."

Sangamo's ZFNs are designed to permanently modify the DNA sequence encoding CCR5, a co-receptor that enables HIV to enter and infect cells of the immune system. Individuals carrying a naturally occurring mutation of their CCR5 gene, a variant known as CCR5-delta32, have been shown to be resistant
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