Genstruct and Gene Logic Collaborate on Systems Toxicology

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif., CAMBRIDGE, Mass. and Gaithersburg, Md., February 25, 2009 – (CHI’s Molecular Medicine Tri-Conference) - Genstruct Inc., a systems biology company focused on identifying molecular mechanisms, networks and biomarkers to better develop novel therapeutics, molecular diagnostics and patient-specific therapies, today announced that it has signed a partnership agreement with Gene Logic, an Ocimum Biosolutions company, for a systems toxicology collaboration.

As part of this collaboration, Gene Logic will provide its extensive toxicology databases and data on specific compounds obtained by the company’s gene expression technology for preclinical and clinical research to clients from the pharmaceutical, biotechnology, consumer products and related industries. With its state-of-the-art methodology and expertise in toxicity mechanisms, Genstruct will apply its Causal Network Modeling™ platform for systems biology to create network models that fully capture the toxicity potential of any compound.

“We are excited by the potential of combining the skill sets of the two companies,” said Dr. Keith O. Elliston, president and CEO at Genstruct. “In Genstruct’s work with pharmaceutical clients, we have characterized complex and poorly understood mechanisms of toxicity such as idiosyncratic drug-induced liver injury and hemangiosarcoma. We can now evaluate a new compound's potential to elicit these types of reactions in man based on data from simple animal studies. Partnering with a highly regarded data provider like Gene Logic, we can now offer pharmaceutical clients of both companies tremendous additional value in toxicity evaluation.”

“This partnership with Genstruct, a very reputed player in the systems biology space is a natural connect with Gene Logic as Keith Elliston was the CSO of Gene Logic in the early days,” said Ms. Anuradha Acharya, CEO, Gene Logic. “As the global pharma landscape is changing, collaborations which create integrated solutions for our customers give us an edge. This strategic partnership will be pivotal in providing integrated solutions spanning across different stages of the discovery value chain to our valuable customers.”

As part of this partnership, Genstruct and Gene Logic will participate in co-marketing initiatives to extend each other’s offerings to current and potential clients. In addition, the companies intend to collaborate in other areas, including personalized or individualized oncology therapy. “Here, Genstruct will engage with Gene Logic to generate gene expression data from patient tumors which will be analyzed using our systems biology platform to arrive at a comprehensive network-level understanding of an individual patient’s disease. This could be of great value to physicians in devising optimal therapy for each patient,” added Dr. Elliston.

About Gene Logic (An Ocimum Biosolutions Company):

Gene Logic is a leading integrated genomics company providing comprehensive genomic reference databases, life science lab information management solutions, GLP-compliant microarray services and essential research consumables. Over 2/3rd of the top 25 pharma companies, leading research institutes and emerging biotech companies worldwide have chosen us as their preferred outsourcing partner and utilize our expertise for understanding underlying mechanisms of diseases, discovery and prioritization of gene targets and biomarkers.

We are a preferred outsourcing partner for providing integrated biorepository and genomic services for several global pharmaceutical companies. Our global infrastructure, standardized procedures, capacity, expertise and highly skilled staff support drug development programs from pre-clinical target development and toxicogenomic assessment to clinical biomarker identification and patient stratification. In creating the world’s largest commercial gene expression databases – BioExpress® and ToxExpress®, we have developed expertise and capabilities that are unparalleled in the genomic services industry. We provide multiple GLP-compliant platforms for gene expression and SNP genotyping data generation. We also provide full biorepository and genomic services support for the Genetic Alliance, which is an umbrella organization representing ~600 genetic advocacy groups. Besides providing the physical infrastructure for storing thousands of biological samples, we provide services to assist sample accrual, IRB approvals, CRO training, sample collection, clinical data capture and management. For more information, please visit www.genelogic.com.

About Genstruct

Founded in 2002, Genstruct is a systems biology company focused on elucidating the complexity of biology for the development of safe and effective therapeutics and molecular diagnostics. By developing Causal Network™ models for complex biological systems, Genstruct develops a deep molecular understanding of diseases and drug action, and designs mechanistic biomarkers and molecular diagnostics to facilitate drug development and personalized medicine. Genstruct’s Consulting Services division engages in short-, mid- and long-term partnerships with top tier pharmaceutical and life sciences companies, to develop new therapeutics and mechanistic biomarkers in the areas of oncology, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular diseases and inflammation. Genstruct was awarded the Bio-IT World 2008 Best Practices Award in the Drug Discovery & Development category for its joint collaboration with Sirtris Pharmaceuticals (a GSK company). Genstruct is a privately held company based in Cambridge, Mass. For more information, please visit www.genstruct.com.

Genstruct and the Genstruct logo are registered trademarks and Causal Network Model and Knowledge Assembly are trademarks of Genstruct, Inc. All other trademarks or registered trademarks are properties of their respective owners.

Contact:

Karen Higgins
A & E Communications for Genstruct
(610) 831-5723
khiggins@aandecomm.com