SEATTLE, Jan. 18, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- TapImmune Inc. (OTCBB:TPIV) has signed a sub-lease for newly-renovated, state of the art laboratory and office space at 1551 Eastlake Avenue in South Lake Union -- in the heart of Seattle's vibrant biotech and medical community. The sublease was signed with Puget Sound Blood Center Research Institute and includes a service agreement enabling TapImmune's scientific research team to access a wide array of functioning core labs and shared equipment in an innovative and cooperative model for scientific research and development. TapImmune will move into the facility on January, 23, 2012.
"We are very excited to be working with the Puget Sound Blood Center's internationally-recognized group of scientific investigators since this allows a leveraging of our development dollars in a way that expands our capabilities well beyond our core staff," said Mark Reddish, TapImmune's Vice President of Product Development. "The labs include equipment and expertise that we would not otherwise be able to access as a start-up operation. Having access to Mass Spectrometry, Fluorescent Activated Cell Sorting (FACS) as well as a DNA sequencing lab affords our new team of scientists the opportunity to immediately begin delivery of our gene based product candidates for clinical trials."
"It has been a pleasure working with the leadership team at the Research Institute, and we look forward to a dynamic research environment in this new medical/biotechnology hub," noted Chairman and CEO, Dr. Glynn Wilson, "This represents an important corporate milestone in advancing the clinical development of TapImmune's immunotherapy products and supporting of our external research and development collaborations."
Jim Gore, chief operating officer of Puget Sound Blood Center Research Institute, was responsible for the design and renovations of the new facility. "We're delighted to be welcoming TapImmune's research and development team into the facility, and the synergy it will create with our own scientific teams," Gore said. "We believe that our unique approach of creating 'scientific cooperative' by sharing of core support delivers significant benefits to researchers from both organizations in their complementary areas of investigation."
The 1551 Eastlake facility -- owned and operated by Alexandria Real Estate Equities -- has become a new Seattle hub for biomedical research, including the Puget Sound Blood Center, the Washington Biotechnology and Biomedical Association and the Life Sciences Discovery Fund, among others. The facility was previously the headquarters of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
About TapImmune Inc.
TapImmune Inc. is a vaccine technologies company specializing in the development of innovative gene based immunotherapeutics and vaccines in the areas of oncology and infectious disease. The Company's lead product candidates include vaccines designed to restore and augment antigen presentation and subsequent recognition and killing of cancer cells by the immune system. The Company is currently preparing for the commencement of a Phase 1 immunotherapy clinical trial targeting Her2Neu in breast cancer using a patented technology developed at the Mayo clinic. TapImmune has the exclusive Option to license this technology. The Company is also developing TAP-based prophylactic vaccines commercially suitable for the prevention of infectious diseases and as Biodefense agents. As a vaccine component, the gene based TAP technology has the potential to significantly improve the efficacy of both prophylactic and immunotherapeutic vaccines as it addresses a fundamental mechanism for T cell recognition and response. Unlike other vaccine technologies that address only the initiation of immune responses, TAP expression also has the unique ability to enhance the effector function of mature killer T cells. This enhancement of effector function is potentially complementary to any/all vaccine approaches that are designed to enhance cellular responses.
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