Allowed Patent Claims Demonstrate Icoria's Leadership in Metabolomics and Use
of Systems Biology to Detect Biomarkers
RESEARCH TRIANGLE PARK, N.C., Dec. 17 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Icoria,
Inc. (Nasdaq: ICOR), a biotechnology company using systems biology to discover
new biomarkers to enhance drug and agrichemical discovery and development,
announced today that it has received a Notice of Allowance from the U.S.
Patent and Trademark Office for a pending patent application directed to its
metabolomics and data coherence platforms.
The company expects that the patent, "Methods and Systems for Analyzing
Complex Biochemical Systems," will be issued in the first quarter of 2005.
The patent is the first in a series of pending patent-applications Icoria has
filed relating to the application of novel computational methods and
analytical tools designed to further its capabilities in the fields of systems
biology and metabolomics.
The allowed patent claims recited in the Notice of Allowance cover a means
for collecting, storing and characterizing chemical components in biological
samples using liquid chromatography/mass spectroscopy (LC-MS), gas
chromatography/mass spectroscopy (GC-MS), nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and
inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). The patent also covers
methods for linking the identified chemical components to metabolites in
biochemical pathways.
"The ability to capture, analyze and store complex biochemical data
obtained using mass spectrometry and pathway analysis is the foundation of our
approach to biomarker discovery," said Thomas J. Colatsky, Ph.D., Vice
President, Health Care Research. "We believe the Notice of Allowance for
these claims not only demonstrates our leadership position in the field of
metabolomics, but also gives us a proprietary advantage in the integration of
multiple complex data streams so that we can understand disease, drug action
and biological function at the system level - the goal of systems biology."
Data coherence represents the ability to combine and interpret disparate
data sets. Metabolomics is one of three technologies Icoria uses to help
companies develop safer and more effective drugs. Using data coherence,
Icoria can merge data from its metabolomics, gene expression profiling, and
quantitative tissue analysis platforms to help its clients discover unique
biomarkers and develop proprietary therapeutics across a range of disease
states, including liver injury and metabolic disorders such as obesity and
diabetes. Icoria's development of data coherence tools is supported in part
by an Advanced Technology Program grant from the National Institute of
Standards and Technology.
About Icoria
Icoria, Inc. is a biotech company dedicated to deciphering the complexity
of biological processes through the application of systems biology to identify
biomarkers for drug discovery and development, diagnostics and to develop
novel agrichemicals. Icoria has major contracts with the National Institute of
Environmental Health Sciences, the Monsanto Company and Pioneer Hi-Bred
International (a subsidiary of DuPont). Icoria also has a major grant from
the National Institute of Standards & Technology's Advanced Technology
Program. For more information, visit http://www.icoria.com .
This press release contains forward-looking statements, including
statements regarding the Company's expectations for its systems biology
platform. Such forward-looking statements are based on management's current
expectations and are subject to a number of risks, factors and uncertainties
that may cause actual results, events and performance to differ materially
from those referred to in the forward-looking statements. These risks,
factors and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, Icoria's early
stage of development, history of net losses, technological and product
development uncertainties, reliance on research collaborations, uncertainty of
additional funding and ability to protect its patents and proprietary rights.
Certain of these and other risks are identified in Icoria's annual report on
Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003 and in its quarterly report on
Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2004, each filed with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. The Company does not intend to update any
of the forward-looking statements after the date of this release to conform
these statements to actual results or to changes in our expectations, except
as may be required by law.
SOURCE Icoria, Inc.
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Related links:
http://www.icoria.com
CONTACT:
Icoria, Inc. Media-Public Relations,
+1-919-425-2999; or Brian Ritchie or Mark Vincent of EURO RSCG
Life NRP, +1-212-845-4200
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