FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, October 10, 2000
CONTACT:
Floyd E. Bloom, M.D.
Founding Chief Executive Officer
(858) 677-0466
NEUROME, INC., FOUNDED BY TEAM OF
LEADING BRAIN RESEARCHERS FROM THE SCRIPPS RESEARCH INSTITUTE
AND MOUNT SINAI SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
New Company to Establish Leadership Position
in Development of Standardized, Quantitative Databases to
Accurately Depict and Integrate Gene Expression Patterns in
3-Dimensional Context of Brain Structures
LA JOLLA, CA – Neurome, Inc., a newly established neuroscience
company, announced today that it will use its proprietary
technologies to develop standardized, quantitative databases
that accurately depict and integrate gene expression patterns
in the 3-dimensional context of the brain's structures, circuits
and cells, and will deploy these databases in primary research
directed toward the discovery and development of gene targets
for enhancement of brain function and treatment of brain-based
disease.
"Neuroscience offers the greatest challenge in biology,
the leading growth area for biomedical research, and the focus
of hope for understanding and treatment of brain-based behaviors
and pathologies, from deficits in memory and learning to diseases
like Alzheimer's and schizophrenia," said Dr. Floyd E.
Bloom, Neurome's chief executive officer. "The opportunity
afforded by Neurome is to begin examination of specific brain
genes in the context of brain structure and function, and
to explore their roles in promoting or preventing disease,
in facilitating or blocking drug action, and in supporting,
or deforming, the complex intercellular activity that determines
human behavior."
Neurome's founders, Dr. Floyd E. Bloom and Dr. Warren G.
Young, both of The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla,
California, and Dr. John H. Morrison, of Mount Sinai School
of Medicine, New York City, New York, are leading computer-based
neuroscientists and pioneers in the modern applications of
neuroanatomy. Their work on the Company's technologies covers
more than fifteen years of research and invention.
Dr. Bloom recently retired as the editor-in-chief of Science
and is the chairman of the department of neuropharmacology
at The Scripps Research Institute. Dr. Morrison is the Johnson
Professor of Geriatrics and Adult Development at the Mount
Sinai School of Medicine, where he is also director of the
Kastor Neurobiology of Aging Laboratories and director of
the Fishberg Research Center for Neurobiology. He will serve
as Neurome's chief scientific officer. Dr. Young is the director
of neuropharmacology computing at The Scripps Research Institute
and the managing editor of Brain Research Interactive. He
will serve as Neurome's chief technology officer.
Both The Scripps Research Institute and Mount Sinai School
of Medicine are founding shareholders of Neurome. Additional
information regarding organization and financing of the Company
will be announced in the near future.
"Recent advances in neuroscience, from the non-invasive
imaging of the human brain to the molecular directions for
development of embryonic brains of experimental animals, offer
new theatres for observation and exploration of brain development,
mature function, and aging," commented Dr. Morrison.
"The progress of the Human Genome Project and the "Brain
Molecular Anatomy Project" (BMAP) of the National Institute
of Mental Health promise a complete inventory of mammalian
genes; and combined with powerful new genomics tools offer
the opportunity to determine which genes from that inventory
are active in the brain - where as many as half of all genes
find their only expression."
"The neurosciences have remained a leading growth area
of biomedical research for more than 30 years, attracting
scientists to the greatest challenge in biology, the understanding
of the functions, capacities and diseases of the brain,"
said Dr. Young. "With recent advances in genomics and
computer science, however, the demand for procedures that
can rapidly extract accurate, reliable quantitative data on
brain structure has increased dramatically and the Neurome
Technologies will help meet that demand."
Most of the tools for neurochemistry, neuroimaging, and neuronal
gene discovery are advancing rapidly, and computer science
(especially the growing discipline of "bioinformatics")
offers remarkably sophisticated tools for integration and
interpretation of the biological data. However, the essential
disciplines of neuroanatomy and neuropathology have remained
more or less unchanged over the past century. The absence
of a standardized regime for collection and organization of
brain experimental data and the highly subjective nature of
original data derived from observation, measurement and commentary
by the individual researcher behind the microscope make accurate
comparisons problematic, and comprehensive analyses of gene
expression in the context of space and time approximate rather
than precise.
To attack this problem, the founders have jointly developed
the "Neurome Technologies," to permit Neurome to
produce, collect, and integrate accurate, 3-dimensional volumetric
data on gene expression within the brain and to correlate
that data with the developing wealth of learning on the architecture
and functions of brain structures, circuits and cells.
The Neurome Technologies include: MiceSlice™
for standardized preparation of brain section tissues, the
foundation material for development of standardized experimental
protocols; NeuroZoom™ for precise,
computer-aided extraction, analyses, and display of quantitative
data from microscope images of brain; BrainArchive™,
an electronic brain "atlas" for archiving, integration
and comparison of brain structure and circuitry data; and,
BrainPrint™ for automated comparison
of quantitative, spatial, and volumetric data from mice, whether
genetically-manipulated, wild-type, or control.
It is the initial mission of Neurome to complete development
of the Neurome Technologies for high throughput commercial/industrial
application and to integrate the Neurome Technologies into
a unitary process for production of standardized, quantitative
data for use by Neurome's own researchers and the Company's
pharmaceutical, biotech and academic research partners.
With the Human Genome Project nearing its goal of a complete
inventory of genes in humans, and companion projects similarly
close to providing the encyclopedia of genes for mice and
other mammals, scientists have recognized that the brain represents
not only the mysterious control center for the organism, but
the organ with the richest inventory of genes, employing more
than half the genes of the genome in roles specific to the
unique functions performed by the brain and central nervous
system. The race now begins to determine the function of each
such gene and to develop strategies for using the knowledge
of these functions to treat disease, enhance brain function
and understand the very nature and implications of consciousness
among higher organisms.
While the molecular genetic techniques required to design
and develop animal models are relatively well established,
these models will not reach their full potential for investigating
normal brain function, pathogenesis and developing therapeutic
strategies until sufficiently powerful tools are utilized
in the neuropathologic assessment of such mice. The dominance
of this approach for investigation of both normal and pathologic
brain function will carry with it a requirement for far more
sophisticated, quantitative assessment of the cellular manifestations
of the genetic manipulation on discrete structural and functional
properties, as well as methods for the organization of such
data into a useful database of reliable quantitative data.
Neurome, Inc., develops standardized, quantitative databases
that accurately depict and integrate gene expression patterns
in the 3-dimensional context of the brain?s structures, circuits
and cells, and deploys these databases in primary research
directed toward the discovery and development of gene targets
for enhancement of brain function and treatment of brain-based
disease. Neurome performs contract brain research for pharmaceutical
and biotechnology companies while at the same time pursuing
its own in-house and collaborative research protocols. The
data collected from these efforts will populate an evolving,
comprehensive database available by subscription and useful
on a broad level for analyses of mouse models of brain function
and disease. In this regard, the application of the Neurome
Technologies will provide rigorous, quantitative data that
are optimally suited to the measurement of subtle cell-type
specific shifts in gene expression, as well as progression
and prevention of degenerative events affecting specific cell
classes and brain regions.
For more information, please contact Neurome, Inc., 11149
North Torrey Pines Road, La Jolla, CA 92037-1031. Telephone:
(858) 677-0466; Fax: (858) 677-0458. |
