Xenogen Corporation and Morphochem AG have entered into a research collaboration to discover targets and develop compounds effective against bacterial biofilms.

Biofilms occur when bacteria, or other microorganisms, attach themselves to a surface as a colony, rather than continue to grow in a free-floating state. Biofilms are responsible for diseases such as otitis media, the most common acute ear infection in children, play a role in bacterial endocarditis, urinary tract infections and Legionnaire's disease, and may be responsible for a wide variety of infections stemming from the surfaces of catheters, medical implants and other types of medical devices. Biofilms are highly resistant to antibiotics and therefore new types of therapeutic compounds to combat their effects constitute a significant medical need.

Under the multi-year program, Xenogen will apply its cutting-edge real-time in vivo bioluminescent imaging technology platform, including Bioware cells and microorganisms and the IVIS Imaging System, to develop in vitro and in vivo assays to discover gene targets specifically directed against the formation and maintenance of biofilms. Morphochem will apply its evolutionary drug discovery approach using multi-component reaction (MCR) chemistry and its proprietary software -- MolMind -- to identify structurally novel compound classes as drug candidates for those targets.

Financial terms of the collaboration were not disclosed. Both companies will retain an ownership interest in compounds developed under the collaboration. Terms for commercialization of any resulting compounds are already defined in the written agreement between the companies but were not disclosed.

"The ability to use Xenogen's bioluminescent imaging technologies for drug discovery will accelerate our ability to screen for effective and safe compounds in this critical area of infectious disease research. We are very excited about this opportunity to incorporate biophotonics with our chemical genomics approach and develop more complete biological knowledge in screening against biofilm targets," said Dr Wolfgang Keck, Morphochem's Vice President, Anti-infectives.

Commented Dr. Pamela Contag, President and Co-Chief Executive Officer of Xenogen, "Morphochem is an excellent partner for identifying new small molecules directed towards biofilm targets. By combining our respective technologies, we think this collaboration will maximize the synergies between our biological and chemical areas of expertise and therefore the effectiveness and efficiency of the drug discovery process."