Quark Biotech Inc has received U.S. Patent No.6,403,316 for a method to identify genes encoding secreted and membranal proteins. Membranal and secreted proteins are highly preferred targets for drug development since they are often critical in disease pathways and are easily accessible to therapeutic (or pharmacological) manipulation. Quark is using these tools to enhance its endpoint driven drug discovery approach (ED3).

Quark's ED3 approach first defines a specified clinical endpoint and then uncovers critical genes and protein functions that profoundly affect the relevant disease pathways to achieve the desired endpoint. Quark subsequently designs small molecules to manipulate the functions of these genes and proteins to achieve the desired endpoint.

"This patent, and our recent acquisition of Incyte's microarray facilities, reaffirms Quark's commitment to drug discovery based on innovation and strong science," said Dr. Daniel Zurr, President and CEO of Quark. "We have developed technologies that identify targets critical to the development of a disease and are novel, and accessible to therapeutic manipulation. We are confident that our seamless integration of biology and chemistry will allow us to efficiently develop novel small molecule therapeutics based on these targets."

Ribosomes catalyze the synthesis of proteins by decoding information from attached messenger RNA (mRNA). Secreted and membranal proteins are synthesized by ribosomes bound to specific cell organelles. All other proteins are synthesized by free ribosomes, which are not attached to any cell organelles. Quark's patented technology is a method for extracting mRNAs attached to bound and to free ribosomes, performing microarray-based comparison of the abundance of these RNAs, and specifically identifying genes encoding for secreted and membranal proteins. These secreted and membranal proteins are more easily accessible to therapeutic manipulation and make superior targets for drug development. Quark is able to define the "druggable" targets in this manner without any prior knowledge of the sequence of these genes and proteins, greatly expediting target validation.