Physiomics Regulatory News (PYC)

20 Apr 2009 07:00



20 April 2009

Physiomics plc 

("Physiomics" or "the Company")

Physiomics to present on Chronotherapy at the Annual Meeting of American

Association for Cancer Research ("AACR")

Physiomics (AIM: PYC), the Oxford, UK based systems biology company, is pleased to announce that it will be participating in the 100th annual meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research, taking place at the Colorado Convention Centre, Denver, Colorado, USA on 18-22 April 2009. Dr Adam Hardy, senior scientist at Physiomics, will present a development update on the Company's chronotherapy research program, as part of the EU funded TEMPO (Temporal Genomics for Tailored Chronotherapeutics) project. Physiomics' poster will include for the first time results obtained from the Company's comprehensive computer model featuring cell proliferation and cell death regulated by the circadian clock running in the Company's proprietary simulation technology, "SystemCell®". The Company intends to use this model to predict new optimal drug schedules which could be commercially exploited by the Company.

The abstract ("Chronotherapy: Seliciclib dosing schedules determined using a detailed computational cancer model", No 3300) will be published in the 2009 Proceedings of the AACR and will be presented in the poster session "Cancer Systems Biology", scheduled for 8:00am on 21st April.

More information about the conference may be found at http://www.aacr.org/home/scientists/meetings--workshops/aacr-100th-annual-meeting-2009.aspx

Enquiries:

Physiomics plc

Dr Christophe Chassagnole, COO 

+44 (0)1865 784980

WH Ireland Limited

David Youngman/Katy Mitchell

+44 (0) 161 832 2174

About TEMPO project (LSHG-CT-2006-037543)

In 2006, Physiomics was selected to participate in the TEMPO Project as one of four Industry partners working closely with four distinguished European academic research groups. The project is coordinated by INSERM unit director Prof Francis Levi, at Paul Brousse hospital in Villejuif (France). TEMPO is a STREP project funded in part by the European Commission through its Life Sciences and Health Sixth Framework programme.

This three year programme is exploring the effect of circadian rhythms (the body's clock) on changes in cell proliferation and the effectiveness of cancer drugs and will use this knowledge to optimise treatment. The aim is to optimise treatment of individual patients taking into account the 24 hour rhythms generated by the patient's biological clock. Physiomics is using its cell simulation technologies to study the effect of cancer drugs on the cell cycle/circadian clock system behaviour, at the cellular level, the cell population level (virtual Fluorescence-Activated Cell-Sorting experiment) or tissue level (virtual tumour). Using pharmacokinetics simulation in connection with pharmacodynamics profile, Physiomics will help establish one or more physiological relevant drug regimes and delivery schedules.

Physiomics will receive approximately €252,650 of matched funding over the three year period and if successful will share in 3 to 5 new therapeutic schedules according to the patient profiles for 2 main drug classes against cancer and more specifically colorectal cancer. TEMPO develops tools that will enable it to select the best administration schedule for anti-cancer drugs, taking into account the genes expression profile of the patient. Under temporal control of the drug administration, the efficacy as well as the toxicity will be controlled in an optimised manner.

For further information, please visit www.chrono-tempo.org

About Physiomics plc

Physiomics (AIM:PYC) is a computational systems biology services company applying simulations of cell behaviour to drug development to reduce the high attrition rates of clinical trials. As 80-90 per cent of all clinical drug candidates fail to reach the market, estimates1 show that an overall ten per cent. improvement in success rates could reduce the cost of one drug's development by as much as $242 million, from the current estimate of around $800 million.

Physiomics develops computational systems biology models to predict and understand cancer drug efficacy from pre-clinical research to clinical development. Physiomics has created detailed mathematical models incorporating most important molecular events taking place during the human cell cycle and apoptosis processes. Physiomics developed SystemCell® technology, a multi-cellular environment software, which enables the simulation of population of "virtual cells".

Physiomics, based in Oxford, UK, was founded in 2001, and floated on AIM in 2004. For further information, please visit www.physiomics-plc.com

SystemCell® is a registered trademark of Physiomics plc

1Tufts Centre Impact Report 2002