Bionomics touts new mouse model for blood vessel growth

Adelaide biomed Bionomics (ASX: BNO) announced today it has developed a new transgenic mouse model that will allow it rapid testing of candidate compounds to inhibit cancer and other disorders involving angiogenesis -- blood vessel growth.

CEO Dr Deborah Rathjen said the company's new rodent model, dubbed NeoVascMouse, had been genetically modified to induce blood vessel growth.

Rathjen said commercial secrecy prevented her from disclosing the nature of the genetic modification, and would say only that it induced rapid growth of new blood vessels and would provide "high quality data" about early vascularisation.

She said the model had been validated with a number of compounds known to inhibit angiogenesis.

The NeoVascMouse model would allow Bionomics -- or its commercial clients -- to quickly to screen large numbers of candidate compounds, or to validate drugs to suppress angiogenesis.

Rathjen said the model could also be used to test compounds that would stimulate angiogenesis, for example to promote wound-healing, or the regrowth of arteries to resupply damaged heart muscle.

Although the transgene is a commercial secret, an important requirement would be to ensure the gene remained inactive until switched on by some external cue, so the mice remained healthy until required for angiogenesis experiments.

Rapid blood vessel growth is a common feature of all solid tumours, which require a rich supply of blood nutrients and oxygen to maintain their prolific growth. Medical researchers are searching for drugs that will starve tumours by cutting off their blood supply.

Angiogenesis inhibitors are also of potential use in treating diabetic retinopathy, a complication of chronic diabetes, which causes small blood vessels to overgrow the retina of the eye, causing blindness.

Rathjen said Bionomics would use NeoVascMouse to test its own candidate angiogenesis inhibitors. The company has already identified 114 novel genes involved in angiogenesis.

The company will also make NeoVascMouse available to provide a commercial testing service to other companies working on angiogenesis.

"There is a real scientific need for a better and more specific animal model for angiogenesis to provide high quality data earlier in the drug discovery process. NeoVascMouse meets that need," she said. "It's going to be of enormous benefit to companies that want to test angiogenesis-inhibiting compounds.

"We've had some inquiries already. We've been talking about our Angene platform to a number of companies over the past year, and this adds another component."

Rathjen said the ability to determine early whether a drug target was likely to generate good drug leads would allow drug developers to reduce research costs, and allow critical decisions to be taken earlier, reducing the risk of failure.

She said NeoVascMouse gave Bionomics a "tremendous competitive advantage" in the global market for validated drug targets for angiogenesis-related illnesses.