Update on EC funded TEMPO project – Achievement of Milestone
Physiomics plc (AIM: PYC), the Oxford, UK based systems biology company, is pleased to announce a successful evaluation, by the European Commission, of the results from the second year of the research program “TEMPO” . Following this successful review, the European Commission have agreed that the 3 year “TEMPO” project can continue into its final year as specified in the original grant proposal.
The three year “TEMPO” programme was established to explore the effect of circadian rhythms (the “body clock”) on changes in cancer cell proliferation and the effectiveness of cancer drugs in order to devise optimal treatment regimens for individual cancer patients. Physiomics is using its cell simulation technologies to study the effect of anti-cancer drugs on the cell cycle/circadian clock both at the cellular level and at the tissue level (by creating a “virtual tumour”). Together with software to simulate drug concentrations, Physiomics is endeavouring to establish new optimal drug schedules which could be commercially exploited by the Company.
Following the approval by the European Commission, a third tranche of pre-financing to fund the next stage of the research, has been received by the Company (a total value of €42,230 (approximately £35,000)). This follows, as mentioned in a previous announcement in May 2008, €88,480 (approximately £74,000) of initial pre-financing that has been irrevocably granted to the Company in consideration of the first year expenses and a second tranche of pre-financing that has been received the Company for a total value of €87,840 (approximately £74,000).
Dr Christophe Chassagnole, COO of Physiomics, said:
“We are delighted with the progress that we have made during the TEMPO project by developing our simulations to take into account the effect of the time of day on the response to anti-cancer drugs. Following a highly encouraging reception from the scientific community at recent conferences, we consider the technological developments to be a major extension to our capability.”