eMetagen: Signs License Agreement with WARF to Commercialize Powerful Technology for Discovering New Therapeutics

eMetagen LLC
For immediate release

Contact:
Anca Copaescu, acopaescu@emetagen.com; 608-358-5451

Madison, WI, May 3, 2004 — eMetagen LLC of Madison, Wisconsin announced today it has completed a license agreement with the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF) to commercialize technology developed by eMetagen founder Dr. Robert Goodman and collaborators at the University of Wisconsin-Madison over the past nine years.

eMetagen’s licensed technologies contribute to unlocking the therapeutic potential of previously uncharacterized and inaccessible microorganisms that represent 99 percent of microbial diversity in the environment.

The key advantage of eMetagen’s technology is that it allows scientists to identify and obtain compounds produced by bacteria and fungi in soil, without first having to bring the organisms into culture. Most microbes are resistant to culturing, making this process a major hurdle for traditional drug discovery.

“Our focus is on soils because bacteria and fungi isolated from this environment have proven to be a rich source of drugs,” says Goodman. “Nearly all of the world’s antibiotics, including streptomycin, tetracycline, erythromycin, vancomycin, the β-lactams, cephalosporins, and rifampicin have come from soil microbes, as well as many other therapeutics for indications ranging from cancers to hypertension to psychiatric disorders. eMetagen’s technologies provide access to the biosynthetic machinery of the vast diversity of organisms in the environment that cannot readily be cultivated in the laboratory and the tools to screen for new natural products with activities useful in human therapeutics”

eMetagen’s drug lead discovery program is focused on the discovery of biologically active small molecules, with an initial focus on the treatment of infectious diseases. eMetagen’s technologies also have applications in the food, consumer products and fine chemicals markets.
About eMetagen: eMetagen was founded in June, 2002 by Dr. Robert Goodman, currently a professor and Chair of the undergraduate Program in Molecular Biology at the UW-Madison, and Anca Copaescu, an experienced business professional and winner of the 2001 Steven G. Burrill Technology Business Plan Competition. To advance proof of concept in the infectious diseases target market, eMetagen received a $488,512 STTR Grant from the National Institutes of Health in March, 2004. The grant will fund research to find novel anti-bioweapon compounds in eMetagen’s natural product libraries. The company will begin operations at the McAllen T.E.C. Incubator adjacent to the Truax Campus of the Madison Area Technical College on May 15th, 2004.

About WARF: : WARF serves the UW-Madison by patenting and licensing inventions created by the University’s faculty and staff and returns the licensing proceeds to the University to support further research. WARF has taken an equity stake in eMetagen in lieu of a cash fee for the technology license.