GeneNews Limited, a company focused on developing blood-based biomarker tests for the early detection of diseases and personalized health management, has been granted a US patent for its core platform technology, the Sentinel Principle. US Patent No. 7,598,031, entitled 'Method for the detection of gene transcripts in blood and uses thereof', protects the Company's Sentinel Principle, a powerful method for identifying markers relating to disease and health using only a basic blood sample.

"This patent is founded on seminal pioneering experiments involving large-scale gene expression profiling of human blood which were performed in the 1990's by Dr Choong-Chin Liew, chief scientist and co-founder of GeneNews," said Dr Heiner Dreismann, lead director and Interim CEO of GeneNews. "The issuance of this foundational patent is a landmark achievement that strengthens our emerging leadership position in the rapidly-growing molecular diagnostics space and promises to spur new approaches by industry."

"The Sentinel Principle is a ground-breaking approach for identifying clinically actionable biomarkers," said Gailina Liew, chief operating officer of GeneNews. "This milestone achievement provides a strong basis for our related portfolio of pending patents which protects the application of our Sentinel Principle technology across a broad spectrum of human disease. It also provides GeneNews with opportunities to realize additional commercial value through potential licensing arrangements and the further development of our own pipeline of 'Sentry' products."

The Sentinel Principle, a platform technology developed by GeneNews, is based on the concept that all clinical conditions and body states, including those resulting from disease or in response to treatment, generate characteristic gene expression signatures in the blood as a result of the close physiological interaction of blood with the cells, tissues and organs of the human body. This technology is the basis of GeneNews' first product, ColonSentry, the world's first blood test for colorectal cancer, which was launched in Canada last year. A broad portfolio of patent applications related to this foundational patent in diverse disease areas including cancer, cardiovascular, neurological and inflammatory conditions have also been submitted by GeneNews.

GeneNews is focused on the application of functional genomics to enable early diagnosis and personalized therapeutic intervention based on disease-specific biomarkers.