LMRA Lumera Corpration (MM)

Lumera Corporation (NASDAQ:LMRA), a leader in the emerging field of nanotechnology, announced today that it has extended its collaboration agreement with the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). In partnership with Lumera scientists, MUSC researchers intend to develop an antibody array that will measure the levels and modifications of patient mitochondrial proteins. Under the agreement, Lumera will retain rights to commercialize all jointly developed intellectual property. �Changes in mitochondrial proteins are known to be markers for certain pathologies and many adverse drug effects. The high throughput and label-free nature of Lumera�s platform enables us to develop an assay that will have significant time and cost advantages over existing technologies. In addition, we are very excited by the prospects of identifying new biomarkers,� said Dr. Craig Beeson, Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences at MUSC and the Principle Investigator on this project. �We are obviously thrilled to be extending this agreement,� said Dr. Timothy Londergan, Bioscience Business Unit Director at Lumera. �Professor Beeson�s vision for this project highlights the world class nature of the science being pursued at MUSC. And while academically interesting, this project has implications across pharma that are significant.� Biomarkers are important to pharmaceutical manufacturers because they are often clear indicators of a diseased state and adverse drug effects. For example, an elevated serum level of prostate-specific antigen is a biomarker for prostate cancer. By identifying specific disease or toxicant biomarkers, pharmaceutical companies can monitor outcome of drugs targeted to these diseases to improve patient outcome and avoid the adverse effects. Unexpected adverse effects are the biggest hurdle in drug development. The biomarker market opportunity is expected to grow dramatically over the next several years. Business Insights, a market research firm, forecasts that the $5.4 billion biomarker market that existed in 2005 will quadruple to an estimated $21.1 billion in 2012 fueled by growth in proteomics and metabolomics biomarker discovery. �Professor Beeson�s applications, along with projects in development at our two other academic beta sites, are in the category of biomarker discovery. In particular, these early adopters of our technology are interested in measuring the up- and down-regulation of thousands of proteins as a result of disease, stress or drug therapy. Lumera�s ProteomicProcessor� instrument system and NanoCapture� microarray slides enable the measurement of thousands of proteins simultaneously, thereby dramatically increasing the efficiency of the biomarker discover process,� said Ron Dudek, Lumera�s Director of Business Development. About MUSC The Medical University of South Carolina's mission is to preserve and optimize human life in South Carolina and beyond. MUSC is the core of the state�s largest medical complex, its only tertiary/quaternary care referral center, and its only free-standing academic health center. The university offers a full range of programs in the biomedical and health sciences serving as a setting for clinical research, contributing financial, facility and intellectual resources to conduct research, and providing opportunity for appropriate participation of hospital patients in research and treatment protocols. MUSC is listed by the National Science Foundation as one of the top 100 universities and colleges in the nation for garnering federal dollars for science and engineering. About Lumera Lumera is an emerging leader in the field of nanotechnology. The company designs proprietary molecular structures and polymer compounds for a broad range of bioscience, electro-optic, and specialty nanotechnology applications. The company also has developed proprietary processes for fabricating such devices. For more information, please visit http://www.lumera.com/. Certain statements contained in this release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the company's forward-looking statements include the following: market acceptance of our technologies and products; our ability to obtain financing; our financial and technical resources relative to those of our competitors; our ability to keep up with rapid technological change; government regulation of our technologies; our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights and protect our proprietary technologies; the ability to obtain additional contract awards and to develop partnership opportunities; the timing of commercial product launches; the ability to achieve key technical milestones in key products; and other risk factors identified from time to time in the company's SEC reports, including in its Annual Report on 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003, and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.