BioSeek, Inc. today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has issued U.S. Patent No. 6,656,695, entitled "BioMAP^TM Characterization of Biologically Active Agents". The patent covers key methods and applications of the company's ground-breaking BioMAP^TM technology for screening compounds as potential therapeutics for inflammatory diseases. BioSeek scientists and founders are the inventors on the patent, which is the first of many that the company expects to issue on its BioMAP^TM technology.

The patented technology is a high-throughput integrative biology platform that allows multiple disease-associated regulatory pathways to be activated at the same time using human cells in model system formats. The newly issued patent addresses the activation of multiple biochemical pathways involved in the mechanisms of chronic human inflammatory disease together with multiple disease-relevant indicators or readouts, to provide an integrated profile of drug effects in the cells. The method allows for rapid comparison and screening of compounds to determine similarities and differences of function in a highly complex human biology setting, and can be used to accelerate drug discovery and development.

BioMAP^TM systems reflect human disease pathology and have the demonstrated ability to detect and distinguish the effects of approved drugs and investigational human therapeutic compounds. BioSeek is applying BioMAP^TM technology in drug development applications with mechanisms relevant to major therapeutic areas including inflammatory and autoimmune diseases, cardiovascular disease and cancer. The technology enables rapid determination of efficacy, side effects and mechanism of action of drug candidates and identification of "first in class" drugs.

"BioMAP^TM technology is an eminently practical system for analysis of cell signaling networks and for functional characterization of genes and drugs," said Eugene Butcher, M.D., Professor, Department of Pathology, Stanford University, a co-founder of BioSeek and one of the inventors on the patent. "Its scalability, throughput and adaptability to diverse disease biology puts BioSeek in a unique position to integrate human biology into the drug discovery process."

"Our BioMAP^TM technology represents a truly unique approach and addresses a major unmet need in drug development for model systems that reflect the complexity of human disease" commented Peter D. Staple, BioSeek's chief executive officer. "This first-issued patent represents a key advance as we build the intellectual property portfolio around this platform."

About BioSeek
BioSeek is improving the success rate of pharmaceutical research and development by integrating human biology from the earliest stages of drug discovery onward. The company's BioMAP^® Systems incorporate predictive primary human cell-based disease models that generate uniquely informative activity profiles of each potential drug, assisting in the selection and development of new drug candidates. BioSeek is leveraging BioMAP^® Systems technology in collaborations to enhance the productivity of its pharmaceutical partners' pipelines, and in the company's internal discovery programs.