ANN ARBOR, Mich., July 17, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) -- MIR Preclinical Services (MIR) has relocated to a state of the art facility at 800 Technology Drive in Ann Arbor, MI. This 20,000 sq. ft. facility was specially designed for the efficient and flexible application of imaging technologies to preclinical research problems. In addition to allowing a 5-fold expansion of MIR's research capacity, the new facility will provide an improved research environment. All imaging technologies will be housed directly within the HEPA-filtered vivarium, providing an unusually clean imaging environment and improved efficiency. The vivarium is contiguous to laboratory support space, equipped for chemistry, molecular biology, and cellular biology research activities. The building will also accommodate our newly formed in vitro services section. The move will also allow the company to become an entirely self-sufficient facility with the addition of a cage wash on a clean/dirty corridor system.
"In less than 3 years of operation, we outgrew our original facility, prompting our move to the Technology Drive location into a unique facility that was specifically designed to accommodate imaging-based drug discovery research," stated Dr. Dick Leopold, CEO and President of MIR. "We are the only preclinical CRO to own and operate state of the art imaging modalities for computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging, positron emission tomography and biophotonic imaging within a single facility. Our laboratory needs are unique and the design of this facility will provide for the growth of the company, increase efficiency of our research services, and reduce dependence on external contracts. The net result will be the provision of expanded and more sophisticated services, creating greater value for our clients," Dr. Leopold continued.
About MIR Preclinical Services
MIR is a contract research organization specializing in the application of state of the art, multimodality imaging technologies to the preclinical evaluation of novel drug candidates. The company boasts management with over 60 years of major pharma cancer drug discovery experience, and is a leader in the integration of traditional anti-cancer efficacy testing with clinically relevant imaging technologies to provide new insights to drug discovery and development. MIR offers a wide array of tumor models including human tumor xenograft, syngeneic, and transgenic models. The company is unique in its ability to apply non-invasive in vivo imaging modalities including preclinical MRI, X-ray micro-CT, high resolution preclinical PET, and bioluminescence and fluorescence imaging to visualize biological processes such as signal transduction, apoptosis and angiogenesis, and tumor growth. MIR actively collaborates with leading scientists in academia in developing new drug evaluation technologies with a view to publication of results in peer reviewed journals.