Palo Alto, CA - Target Discovery, Inc. announces today a broad collaboration with researchers at The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center to develop a new generation of cancer diagnostic assays. The collaboration will initially focus on breast cancer, followed by other cancer areas with serious unmet diagnostic needs. Scientists at Target Discovery will use the company’s patented mass defect technology, Isotope-Differentiated Binding Energy Shift Tags (IDBEST™), to validate clinical protein biomarkers at the isoform level, using retrospective patient samples provided by M. D. Anderson Cancer Center. Target Discovery will then integrate selected protein isoform biomarkers into its proprietary Isonostics™ technology, to develop clinical assays designed to assist clinicians in differentiating between invasive and non-invasive forms of breast cancer.

“Over 80 percent of breast cancer patients are prescribed treatments which may not be necessary or the most appropriate for the individual’s particular type of breast cancer,” said Gordon Mills, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Molecular Therapeutics, and Director of the Kleberg Center for Molecular Markers at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center. “While breast cancer diagnostic procedures continue to become more sensitive, allowing for earlier detection of breast cancer, we need more informative tests to ensure that patient treatments are as effective and cost efficient as possible. We are excited to collaborate with Target Discovery, whose technologies provide a way to differentiate and quantify protein isoforms in complex biological samples, addressing a missing clinical component for the advancement of cancer diagnostics.”

“The scientific literature is repeatedly showing that the presence and ratio of specific isoforms improve the relevance of disease biomarkers versus traditional protein assays. However, with up to 30,000 or more protein variants in a single cell, protein isoform differentiation and measurement has been a major challenge in the development of clinical diagnostic assays,” said Jeffrey N. Peterson, CEO of Target Discovery. “Our technologies are designed to address this industry challenge, and we are excited to work with Dr. Mills and the Kleberg Center at M. D. Anderson, a leading academic center in cancer research. This is the second protein isoform research collaboration we have established this year, illustrating the importance to clinicians for better understanding and utilizing protein isoforms to improve disease diagnosis and therapy selection.”

About Mass Defect Technology and Isonostics™
From a small number of coding genes, approximately 22,000, the body produces a million different proteins, which perform most biological processes. Cells employ elaborate mechanisms to modify parent proteins to create many protein variants or isoforms. Historically, diagnostic tests that target protein biomarkers have been unable to distinguish between the multiple isoforms of a protein captured from a clinical sample. Target Discovery’s Mass Defect technology (US patent No. 6,962,818) uses isotope-differentiated binding energy shift tags (IDBEST™) to rapidly validate the levels of clinically relevant isoforms in known biomarkers in retrospective studies. Target Discovery’s Isonostic™ products make this isoform information available as a clinical assay by quantifying protein isoforms created from both genetic mutations and post-translational modifications.

About Target Discovery, Inc.
Target Discovery is developing the next generation of clinical diagnostics, offering higher-value molecular insights for the diagnosis and management of disease. The company’s initial commercial focus is on isoform-level protein biomarkers and diagnostics (Isonostics™) for cancer. The company engages in funded collaborations with partners for application of its unique isoform-level technologies in other disease areas and in theranostic applications (diagnostic testing to select or disqualify patients for a specific drug therapy). The company is based in Palo Alto, California. More information is available at www.targetdiscovery.com.

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(Isonostics™ and IDBEST™ are trademarks of Target Discovery, Inc.)