Aviva Systems Biology to Collaborate With the Institute for Systems Biology in Developing New Antibodies for Liver Toxicity Biomarker Discovery

SAN DIEGO, May 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Aviva Systems Biology has entered into a collaborative agreement with the Seattle-based, non-profit Institute for Systems Biology, to develop new antibodies for liver toxicity biomarker discovery.

Under the agreement, the Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) is providing Aviva Systems Biology with a list of proteins for which Aviva will produce antibodies. ISB will then assess the antibodies for efficacy and, if appropriate, use them to identify possible biomarker proteins that indicate early liver toxicity.

"We're very enthusiastic about working with ISB," said Julian Yuan, CEO at Aviva. "They have a research reputation that is international in scope and they are clearly at the leading edge in the field of biomarker discovery".

The antibodies are used in surface plasma resonance imaging (SPR), which detects proteins at lower levels of density than is possible with other technologies, such as mass spectrometry.

"In order to make progress in our research we needed to expand beyond those antibodies already available in the market, because proteins with these specificities have been extensively studied," said Dr. Leroy Hood, president and one of the founders of ISB. "We look forward to using the new automation technology of this collaboration to identify many new antibodies for proteins that serve as indicators of liver toxicity."

"Aviva's ability to produce a large number of antibodies quickly and efficiently certainly made them an attractive partner in this collaboration," Hood said.

Aviva currently has an inventory over 12,000 target peptide specific antibodies that represent more than 4,000 novel human and mouse targets.

About Aviva Systems Biology

Based in San Diego, California, ASB is dedicated to the development of reagents for transcription factor research including antibodies to all putative transcription factors. ASB also generates antibodies and additional reagents for other important research areas.

CONTACT: Jeff Falk, Ph.D Director of Technology Applications (858) 552-6979 jfalk@avivasysbio.com.

About the Institute for Systems Biology

The Institute for Systems Biology (ISB) is an internationally renowned, non-profit research institute headquartered in Seattle and dedicated to the study and application of systems biology. Founded by Leroy Hood, Alan Aderem and Ruedi Aebersold, ISB seeks to unravel the mysteries of human biology and identify strategies for predicting and preventing diseases such as cancer, diabetes and AIDS. ISB's systems approach integrates biology, computation and technological development, enabling scientists to analyze all elements in a biological system rather than one gene or protein at a time. Founded in 2000, the Institute has grown to 12 faculty and more than 200 staff members; an annual budget of more than $25 million; and an extensive network of academic and industrial partners. For more information about ISB, visit www.systemsbiology.org.

CONTACT: Todd Langton Associate Director of Communications and Public Relations (206) 732-1333 tlangton@systemsbiology.org

Aviva Systems Biology

CONTACT: Jeff Falk, Ph.D, Director of Technology Applications,+1-858-552-6979, jfalk@avivasysbio.com, or Todd Langton, Associate Directorof Communications and Public Relations, +1-206-732-1333,tlangton@systemsbiology.org, both of Aviva Systems Biology

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