OriGene Technologies Raises $16 Million to Build the Largest Collection of Next Generation Monoclonal Antibodies (TrueMAB(TM)) to Cover the Majority of Human Proteome

ROCKVILLE, Md., March 17 /PRNewswire/ --  OriGene Technologies, Inc., a leading gene-centric life sciences company, announced the completion of a $16 million Series B financing led by IDG-Accel, SBI & TH Venture Capital Enterprise, and Zero2IPO. OriGene's previous investors Morningside Venture Investments and President International Development Corp. (PIDC) also participated in this round.  The proceeds from the funding will be used to continue to build OriGene's TrueMAB™ monoclonal antibody collection.  

"We are delighted by this vote of confidence from our existing and new investors and share their enthusiasm for our growth strategy and execution.  The funding will propel us closer to meeting our goal of building the largest monoclonal antibody collection in the world covering the entire human genome of approximately 20,000 genes," said Wei-Wu He, OriGene's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer.

The TrueMAB™ Collection of monoclonal antibodies will be developed with the most up-to-date antibody technologies and will be significantly different from many antibodies on the market, as OriGene will be using authentic human full-length proteins as immunogens during the manufacturing process. OriGene has dedicated the last decade to build the largest collection of human full-length cDNA clones in the world. The collection has enabled OriGene to manufacture human full-length proteins directly from human cells for producing monoclonal antibodies. TrueMAB™ monoclonal antibodies generated by authentic human antigen, have been proven far superior in quality than traditional small peptide generated monoclonal and polyclonal antibodies, especially in applications such as flow cytomery and multiplex ELISA assays. Many of these monoclonal antibodies are currently available and will be utilized by multiple commercial partners for various applications.

About OriGene Technologies

OriGene Technologies, Inc., is a gene centric life sciences tool company dedicated to support academic, pharmaceutical and biotech companies in their research of gene functions and drug discovery.  OriGene's novel product line includes the world's largest cDNA and shRNA clone collections, over 5,000 purified human proteins, high quality monoclonal antibodies (TrueMAB™), 100,000 highly validated human tissues, and Luminex Multiplex Assay Products.  OriGene also provides a broad range of antibody validation products including genome-wide tagged antigen standards and extensive IHC slides derived from our tissue collection. OriGene is committed to its mission to be "Your Gene Company;" in supplying everything a researcher would need for gene based research. For more information, visit www.origene.com.

SOURCE OriGene Technologies, Inc.