San Diego , CA , Monday, October 25, 2004 - 8 AM PST

PrecisionMed Inc., a privately held human biobank in the San Diego area, today announced at the 34 th annual meeting of the Society for Neuroscience 2004 meeting in San Diego the launch of 3 new neuroscience biobank collections. They include:

•  Normal subjects : Serial collection (5 over 24 hours) of CSF, DNA, RNA, plasma, serum and urine from 10 normal subjects.

•  Schizophrenia : Collection of CSF, DNA, RNA, plasma, serum and urine from 45 subjects with schizophrenia and 45 matched controls.

•  Multiple Sclerosis : DNA, RNA, plasma, serum and urine from 500 subjects diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and 500 matched controls.

The normal subject protocol is designed to collect multiple samples from normal control subjects aged 19-45 over a one day period in order to have samples representative of different times of the day. Humans are considered a diurnal species with maximal alertness typically occurring during the day. In diurnal species, a number of proteins are known to exhibit rhythmic expression and expression levels will vary considerably over a 24 hour period. This is the first step in understanding which rhythmically cycling proteins may be altered in diseases known to have aberrant sleep-wake cycles including depression and Alzheimer’s Disease and can be used to help understand abnormalities in other diseases that manifest changes in alertness. Samples will be collected every 6 hours over a 24 hour period. Subjects will be fed for the first 2 samples and fasted for the final 3.

In the schizophrenia protocol PrecisionMed will collect samples from individuals who have been diagnosed with schizophrenia utilizing rigorous methods as well as controls matched for age, race and gender with no neuropsychiatric disease and no family history of neuropsychiatric disease. Demographic information will be collected and rating scales administered to confirm diagnosis, type and severity of psychopathology, and extent and type of cognitive deficit. In order to qualify for this collection schizophrenia subjects must have been diagnosed with Schizophrenia (DSM IV: 295.10, 295.20, 295.30, 295.60, 295.70, 295.90). The data to establish this diagnosis will be obtained from extensive diagnostic interview, the M.I.N.I. Plus exam, and the PANSS. In addition subjects will be evaluated with the CogState, a validated cognitive assessment battery and MMSE exams. Control subjects must have no neuropsychiatric disease as confirmed by the M.I.N.I. and PANSS exams. This protocol is initially designed for 90 subjects but the number of subjects can be increased if necessary.

In the multiple sclerosis protocol , subjects with a diagnosis of Definite Multiple Sclerosis including Relapsing Remitting, Chronic Progressive and Secondary Progressive Multiple Sclerosis are eligible to participate. The collection will be performed in 30 US neurology sites experienced with MS. It is expected to enroll 500 MS subjects and 500 matched controls.

PrecisionMed’s sample bank is a repository of human blood, DNA, RNA, serum, plasma, urine and CSF linked to de-identified audited clinical data. Samples are available to the pharmaceutical industry to enhance drug discovery and development, therapeutic target validation and molecular diagnostic product development. PrecisionMed provides customers access to samples with associated clinical information from a population of disease-specific subjects and healthy matched controls. PrecisionMed is rapidly expanding its collections to include additional neuropsychiatric and other diseases. PrecisionMed offers custom sample collections in any disease area.

PrecisionMed’s samples are provided to our customers free of commercial incumbency and all samples are appropriately consented for scientific use on an anonymized basis.

“We are pleased to add these collections to our growing inventory in the neuroscience area," said John Flax MD., President and CEO of PrecisionMed. "Our current inventory includes banked controlled collections in schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease, major depression, cystic fibrosis, bipolar I disorder with CSF inventory in Alzheimer’s disease and elderly control subjects. With these new collections, we are adding controlled collections in 2 important diseases and expanding the sample types available to our customers. In addition the serial CSF collection in normal subjects will contribute significantly to our understanding of rhythmic protein changes in CSF.

PrecisionMed is skilled in performing custom collections and we have significant experience in accessing “difficult to reach” populations.Subjects are enrolled into PrecisionMed collections based on strict inclusion criteria, and clinical data are carefully audited before entry into the PrecisionMed database. All these factors make PrecisionMed an attractive potential partner for research companies.”

"The scientific value of genetic samples is a direct function of the validity and depth of the clinical phenotypic information," said Dr. Herbert Meltzer, Medical Director of PrecisionMed. "Genotyping and other laboratory aspects of this important strategy for pharmaceutical development are often commoditized. However, in all cases, but neuropsychiatric illness in particular, accurate diagnostic classification and collection of relevant additional demographic and clinical response data are especially important because of the absence of laboratory means of establishing diagnosis. PrecisionMed understands this and has made every effort to obtain reliable information and exclude subjects when significant uncertainty exists. PrecisionMed is as precise as possible.”

About PrecisionMed