GT Life Sciences Broadens Intellectual Property Portfolio with Issuance of U.S. Patent on Core Computational Systems and Methods for Genomic-based Metabolic Modeling

SAN DIEGO, May 12, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- GT Life Sciences, Inc., (GT) a privately held biotechnology company announced today the issuance of Patent No. 7,856,317 for "SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR CONSTRUCTING GENOMIC-BASED PHENOTYPIC MODELS" by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.  The '317 patent has a priority date of June 14, 2002 and contains broad, novel claims to computer systems and complex modeling processes by which scientists may use computational models to create scalable models to reconstruct biological networks and simulate biochemical functions.  GT holds an exclusive license to the '317 patent in the commercial life sciences field.

The '317 patent discloses and covers computational methods for constructing, simulating, and predicting the activity of metabolic network models where genes are linked to reactions.  Its claims cover systems and methods to create computational models of organisms for which genome-scale information is just now becoming available as well as to scale-up existing models to which new and additional genomic information can be added.  By using the inventions claimed in the '317 patent, scientists may significantly increase drug target identification and safety prediction in the drug discovery process, resulting in faster development of new drug therapies at greatly reduced cost.  

GT's intellectual property portfolio includes over 50 patents and patent applications, including portfolios licensed from Genomatica, the University of California and Penn State University. The issued and pending claims within GT's patent portfolio include constraint-based models as well as other modeling platforms focused on biological systems where genes, reactions and omics data can be represented, studied, and analyzed in an iterative process to enable and accelerate biological discovery. This intellectual property is at the heart of products derived from using genome-scale network reconstruction and model building, as well as model-driven data representation and computational analysis. Most, if not all, bottom-up metabolic systems biology is covered by GT's patent portfolio, with significant implications for all other cellular processes beyond metabolism. For example, the IP portfolio covers model reconstruction, high-throughput data mapping on network models, species-specific models (eg. human, mammalian cell lines, yeast and other microbial models).  GT's intellectual property conveys a vision of how systems biology would evolve, and the importance that in silico and high-throughput technologies can have on the maturation of this field. See (http://www.gtlifesciences.com/intellectual/patentestate.html).

"We believe that our patent portfolio represents one of the most valuable patent estates in the area of computational systems biology that enables genome-scale views of organism functions and their application to life science product discovery," stated Thomas Reed, President of GT Life Sciences.  "The '317 patent provides a strategic link with our existing portfolio of patents and patent applications owned and licensed in the field of computational biology.  Our licensees will now have a full tool box with which to accelerate product discovery and development. GT's technologies and patent portfolio address the growing importance of improving R&D efficiency and productivity in the pharmaceutical and life science industries."  

About GT Life Sciences, Inc.

GT Life Sciences (GT) is a privately held biotechnology company that utilizes a proven metabolic modeling and experimental platform to drive the discovery and design of new products and processes for the life sciences field. GT is a world leader in cellular metabolism, biochemical reactions, enzymatic transformations, networks and systems that control processes in cells. GT's platform is being applied to accelerate biological research, discovery and product development for both GT and its partners in a number of commercial opportunity areas in which cellular metabolism plays an important role. For more information, visit www.gtlifesciences.com.

SOURCE GT Life Sciences, Inc.