JENA, Germany, and BRUSSELS, Belgium, May 5, 2003 (PRIMEZONE) -- CyBio AG (Other OTC:CYBOF) and Euroscreen SA today announced that they have begun to offer biopharmaceutical customers a combination package which provides Euroscreen's functional aequorin-based G protein-coupled receptor (GPCR) testing with the reader technology and automation benefits of the CyBi(tm)-Lumax SD and further flexible solutions for screening automation.
CyBi(tm)-Lumax SD is already known as one of the most sensitive and robust flash-luminescence readers capable of dispensing and measuring light from 96, 384 and 1536-well plates. Due to the integration of the proven non-contact dispenser CyBi(tm)-Drop into a CCD camera-based imager, the CyBi(tm)-Lumax SD can detect short lasting flash signals. The versatility of the CyBi(tm)-Lumax SD reader with its small footprint and with its ease of integration in large automated platforms makes it the ideal workhorse for High-Throughput Functional Screening (HTFS) of GPCRs. AequoScreen(tm) is Euroscreen's proprietary platform combining the sensitivity of aequorin detection of increases in intracellular calcium with optimized GPCR expression and coupling to calcium in mammalian cell lines. Euroscreen AequoScreen(tm) cell lines are already recognized for their potential in providing a single platform for high-throughput detection of the functional activity of GPCRs in a homogeneous, automation-friendly format using the system's stability. Customers can now further benefit from these procedures through improved custom support and special pricing of the combined product package of the two companies for GPCR testing.
Commenting on the announcement, Dr. Paolo Meoni, Scientific Support Manager for Euroscreen, said: "This is what the GPCR screening community has been waiting for years. The use of AequoScreen(tm) cell lines for HTFS of GPCRs has been hindered by the lack of affordable, sensitive, robust and flexible flash-luminescence readers. The combination of CyBiTM-Lumax SD and Euroscreen AequoScreen(tm) cells lines will give an immediate opportunity to small and medium-sized biopharmaceutical companies and Big Pharma to experience the benefits of HTFS in GPCR drug discovery."
Euroscreen's AequoScreen cell lines provide specific GPCR test results based upon the luminescent signaling of aequorin which is covered by a series of worldwide patents exclusively held by Euroscreen. The AequoScreen(tm) cell lines will be sold as an attractive package together with the CyBi(tm)-Lumax SD.
About Euroscreen SA and CyBio AG
Euroscreen is a world leader in G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). The Company integrates its research expertise in this area with its patented high-throughput AequoScreen(tm) cellular assay platform to patent new GPCR targets and drug candidates.
The Company is building its own patent portfolio of GPCR targets and novel drug leads for licensing to biopharmaceutical companies, and to date has agreements with Alchemia, Galapagos Genomics, ICOS, Merck & Co, Nanosyn, Pfizer Inc, Solvay, Sosei, Syngenta, UCB and EvotecOAI. Euroscreen has also established collaborations with academic centres, such as Brussels University, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, the University of Georgia Research Foundation, the University of Virginia Patent Foundation and the University of Toronto, for access to its GPCR-based products (recombinant cell lines and membrane preparations) and services (custom screening and cloning).
Euroscreen is a privately held company based in Brussels, Belgium. The Company was spun out of the University of Brussels in 1994 by Professors Jacques Dumont, Marc Parmentier and Gilbert Vassart and has since raised more than (Eur)8m in equity funding and grants. Euroscreen currently has 80 employees of which 50 are in R&D.
CyBio is a global life sciences enterprise with its headquarters in Jena, Germany, and sales subsidiaries in the USA, UK and France as well as distributing partners in Asia. CyBio AG has been a public listed company (ISIN DE0005412308) since 1999.
Being a company at the cutting edge of technology, CyBio develops, produces and sells technology platforms for drug discovery. With more than 15 years of experience CyBio establishes new standards for precision, speed and engineering with its hardware, software and service products for the automation of drug screening processes. The portfolio covers a broad range of excellent solutions for pharmaceutical and agrochemical research: liquid handling, incubation, imaging reader, software and system integration to achieve fully automated screening technologies (CyBi(tm)-Screen-machine), the key for innovative and efficient ultra high-throughput screening (uHTS).
More information can be found at www.euroscreen.be and www.cybio-ag.com
-0- CONTACT: Euroscreen SA Pierre Nokin, Ph.D. President and CEO Tel: +32 71 348 500 Paolo Meoni Scientific Support Manager Tel: +32 71 348 515 Al Gray, Ph.D. Vice President, Business Development Tel: +1 585 567 4400 CyBio AG Cornelia Todt Investor Relations/Public Relations Tel: +49 3641 351425 Dr. Christoph Wenger Product Manager Tel: +49 3641 351315 Chris Groves Marketing Manager Cybio U.S. Inc. Tel: +1 781 376 9899