Business
Eurostars' GeneICE Programme
Eurostars' GeneICE Programme.
About this update from Valirx Plc
[{"type":"text","content":"\n RNS Number : 7597N ValiRx PLC 17 June 2010 \n \n\n17 June 2010\n \nValiRx Plc\n(\"ValiRx\" or \"the Company\")\n \n \nVALIRX ANNOUNCES FIRST ANNIVERSARY OF ITS €1.2m EUROSTAR PROGRAMME WITH ALL DEVELOPMENTAL MILESTONES SUCCESSFULLY MET\n \n \nValiRx Plc (AIM: VAL), a life science company with a focus on cancer diagnostics and therapeutics for personalised medicine, is pleased to announce that ValiRx has now completed the first year of a two year Eurostars grant programme (total budget €1.2m) in which all developmental milestones have been met.\n \nIn June 2009, ValiRx, as the leading partner of an international consortium of three companies, was awarded a two year grant by Eurostar against substantial competition from across Europe, to develop its GeneICE technology(\"GeneICE\" or \"Gene inactivation by chromatin engineering\"), in which \"rebellious genes\", which cause problems such as cancer and potentially some neurological problems, are shut down or \"put on ice\". \n \nThe Eurostars programme is an EU grant scheme and EUrEKa Network initiative, created with the purpose of providing funding for market-oriented research and development activities by Small and Medium-sized Enterprises within the EU.\n \nValiRx successfully led the funding application with GenoSyst (Finland) and PentaBase (Denmark) under the 2nd call to the Eurostars joint Programme, for design optimisation, lead selection and pre-clinical testing of GeneICE. The application was rated second in the UK and Finland and first in Denmark, coming in 4th overall out of over 500 applicants within the EU wide scheme. \n \nThe technology is under license from Imperial College, University of London and it has been shown to be effective against several cancer cell lines, including prostate cancer, ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer and lung cancer. ValiRx retains all commercial rights for GeneICE from the programme. \n \nThe GeneICE development plan has four principal goals:\n1. Identification of specific genomic DNA sequences associated with proven cancer targets.\n2. Design and optimisation of the anti-gene system to silence the aberrant genes\n3. Evaluation of desired and potential off-target effects \n4. Pre-clinical development of an opti...