CAMBRIDGE, UK (2008-07-02) – ProteinLogic Ltd. (‘the Company’), announced today that its diagnostic testing method – SCD FINGERPRINTS (patent application 2003219275) was sealed by the Australian Patent Office (Australian Government IP Australia) on 26 June 2008 and assigned the Patent Number 2003219275.

The decision by the Australian patent office Australian Government IP Australia to grant this patent represents the first decision by a national patent office to endorse the intellectual property underpinning the Company’s technology. The applications filed in other global territories, including the US, are still pending

Dr Richard Cumming, Marketing Director, said “The granting of the Australian patent represents a milestone event for the company. This key patent is the foundation of the Company’s future intellectual property in disease specific domains”.

Unlike most diagnostic tests that measure only a single or a small number of proteins, ProteinLogic utilises an monoclonal antibody biochip (ImmiChip) combined with high-throughput multiplexing technology to measure multiple blood proteins in parallel. Pattern recognition software developed at Cambridge University is then used to analyse databases of protein profiles to generate disease-specific diagnostic barcodes or ‘fingerprints’.

The technology was developed by Dr César Milstein and Dr Adrian Woolfson at the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge and Professor Nick Hales from the Department of Clinical Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge. The technology is based partly on Milstein’s discovery of immune cell surface antigens and his work on monoclonal antibodies, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology.

The research was initially funded by a Medical Research Council Development Gap Grant, a Cambridge University Challenge Fund Grant and a Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) government SMART award. Following this the Company has completed three successful private placements.

The patent was filed by the University of Cambridge, Addenbrooke’s Hospital NHS Trust and the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology. The Company was granted an exclusive worldwide licence to the ‘sCD fingerprint’ patent by the University of Cambridge Research Services Division Technology Transfer to further develop this diagnostic testing system.