I wonder how this is coming along. This will be huge. It will be put into the accelerated program at the FDA.
News Release: January 26, 2006
DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. Has Licensed a Diabetes Diagnostic Test Developed by Dr. Jose Halperin at Harvard Medical School
SARASOTA, FL--(HSMN NewsFeed)--Jan 26, 2006 -- DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. (OTC BB:DNAG.OB ) today announced that the Company and Harvard University have entered into a sponsored research and a field-exclusive licensing agreement. Under the agreement, DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. will sponsor further development in the Laboratory for Translational Research (LTR) at Harvard Medical School of a diagnostic test devised in the Laboratory to target early identification of the population at risk of developing vascular diabetic complications. The Company also will conduct work directed toward its eventual commercialization of the test.
Diabetes is the number one cause of renal transplants, blindness and leg amputations. These are all vascular (blood vessel) complications of diabetes and are the most serious and burdensome effects of the disease for diabetic patients. Treatment of these complications of diabetes consumes 10-15% of the overall US health budget. Therefore, early detection of the diabetic population at risk is a major public health priority as set out by the National Heart Lung and Kidney Institute of the National Institutes of Health in the 1990s. Dr. Jose Halperin, head of the LTR, and members of his research group discovered that a molecule -- called CD59 -- which is a regulator of the complement system, appears to be a key player in how small blood vessels are damaged during the spikes in blood glucose levels that are common in diabetic individuals. Continuous damage to these microvessels is the underlying cause of the kidney, nerve and heart disease that more than 60% of diabetic patients suffer over a lifetime. This discovery of a molecule that is a hallmark of such vessel damage will enable DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. to develop a test to identify even very early stages of microvascular complications.
"Unfortunately, by the time patients are diagnosed with a major complication of diabetes, it may be too late for effective therapy by most available medications and changes in life style," said Dr. Hector Gomez, Chairman and Chief Medical Officer of DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. and the newly formed DNAPrint Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of DNAPrint Genomics, Inc. This collaboration will further the development of new diagnostic tests that will help physicians and healthcare providers re-direct predisposed patients to healthier lifestyle changes and perhaps even some day, medications to help slow down or prevent the onset of vascular diabetic complications.
"This well advanced technology licensed by DNAPrint Genomics Inc. was developed with support from the National Institutes of Health, which funded much of the early discovery work. We are pleased to have the opportunity to sponsor research that will further develop and eventually commercialize this important diagnostic test that could significantly improve the management of diabetes," said Richard Gabriel, CEO and President of DNAPrint Genomics, Inc.
News 
Market Data 
Discover 
AI
