Protagen AG, a specialist for in-vitro diagnostics and GMP-compliant protein analysis, and Bayer Schering Pharma AG, a global leading specialty pharmaceuticals company, announced today the closing of a cooperation contract for discovery of novel biomarkers in Endometriosis.

Endometriosis is a debilitating gynecological medical condition occuring in roughly 5% -10% of women worldwide. The golden standard of diagnosis is currently performed by laparoscopy, a visual inspection of the abdominal organs followed by surgical removal and examination of lesions. Aim of the current study is to evaluate the UNIarray® technology for discovery of autoantibody patterns for the predictive diagnosis of Endometriosis and to improve patient's quality of life. Proteomic profiling of inflammation, angiogenesis and tissue re-modelling processes are becoming increasingly important to understand the biology of Endometriosis.

"Biopharmaceutical companies benefit from our UNIarray® approach, a proprietary technology platform with the goal to develop diagnostics based on indication-specific autoantibody patterns in blood samples from patients," said Dr. Peter Schulz-Knappe, CSO and Executive Vice President of Diagnostics at Protagen. "Indication specific autoantibody patterns are not only present in classical 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 like in Endometriosis.

About Protagen AG - www.protagen.de
Protagen AG is an international leading specialist in the fields of in vitro diagnostics and GMP-compliant protein analysis. The innovations of Protagen are UNIarray®, a technology platform for the development of novel serum based diagnostics, as well as UNIchip®, a versatile product family of protein microarrays for faster development of antibodies.