Health & Medicine Press release from: Protagen AG PR Agency: Dr. Holger Bengs Biotech Consulting (openPR) – Dortmund, Germany and New Jersey, USA, December 3, 2008. Protagen AG announces the closing of a cooperation contract with Bayer HealthCare AG, Leverkusen, Germany, about the evaluation of the UNIarray® technology for discovery of novel biomarkers in atrial fibrillation.

Bayer HealthCare is currently investigating atrial fibrillation after heart surgery in a clinical study. A certain number of patients develop this type of cardiac symptoms after surgery. Currently, it is not possible to predict the patients at risk of developing atrial fibrillation. Aim of the proof-of-principle study is to evaluate the UNIarray® technology for discovery of novel biomarkers for patient stratification and predictive diagnosis of atrial fibrillation.

UNIarray® of Protagen is a proprietary technology platform to develop novel diagnostics based on indication-specific autoantibody patterns in blood samples from patients. These autoantibody patterns are not only present in several autoimmune diseases, but also in cancer, neurodegenerative disorders, and even in apparently healthy individuals. Therefore, the systematic and indication-specific determination of autoantibody patterns will serve as a unique basis to address hitherto unmet diagnostic needs. In addition UNIarray® serves as platform for the development of product specific companion diagnostics and patient stratification for clinical studies. Protagen presently is focused on research at novel diagnostics for Prostate Cancer, Multiple Sclerosis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis, Morbus Parkinson, and Alzheimer´s Disease.