Norak Biosciences Inc announced an additional patent issued covering compositions and methods that protect its Transfluor technology in Australia. The newly issued patent claims compositions and cells expressing any labeled beta-arrestin, an intracellular protein, and its use, that track the natural movement of arrestin protein. It is expected that similar claims will issue worldwide including United States, Europe, Canada and Japan covering similar constructs, and also covering other biologically active forms of arrestin.

Norak's Transfluor technology is a patented, universal GPCR drug discovery technology designed to be the most accurate method for discovering ligands for GPCR targets, whether known or orphan. Transfluor was exclusively licensed in 1999 by Norak from technology developed at Duke University Medical Center and represents the combined research into GPCR signaling pathways over several decades by Norak's scientific founders, Drs. Marc Caron, Robert Lefkowitz, and Larry Barak.

"We are pleased to have exclusive rights for compositions and methods involving any labeled beta-arrestin," commented Dr. Roger. D. Blevins, Norak's President and CEO. "We are aggressively pursuing this scope of claims as well as other improvements for Transfluor worldwide."