Prana Chief Scientific Advisor Receives Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award
MELBOURNE, Australia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Prana Biotechnology Limited (ASX:PBT/NASDAQ:PRAN) is pleased to
congratulate its Chief Scientist, Professor Rudy Tanzi, who has been
awarded a Smithsonian American Ingenuity Award for his work researching
Alzheimer’s disease.
The American Ingenuity Award is the Smithsonian’s highest honour,
recognising revolutionary breakthroughs in the arts, sciences, education
and social progress.
Professor Tanzi shared the award for Natural Sciences with his research
collaborator Dr Doo Yeon Kim.
“We congratulate Professor Tanzi on receiving this award, which
recognises his work on Alzheimer’s and efforts to find effective
treatments for this debilitating neurodegenerative disease,” said Prana
CEO Geoffrey Kempler.
Professor Tanzi and Dr Kim received the award for developing a
laboratory tool, dubbed “Alzheimer’s in a dish”, that enables
researchers a chance to track the course of the disease and to quickly
and cheaply test thousands of potential treatments that could halt its
progress.
Prana is developing PBT2 as a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. PBT2 is
being developed for its potential to reduce beta- amyloid and tau levels
and the toxic gain of function of these proteins to improve neuronal
cell viability in the brain.
Professor Tanzi is the co-founding scientist of Prana. He has
investigated the genetic causes of Alzheimer’s disease since 1982 and
co-discovered the three genes which cause early-onset familial
Alzheimer’s disease. He is the Director of Genetics and Aging Research
Unit at the MassGeneral Institute of Neurodegenerative Diseases and the
Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School and Vice-Chair of
Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital.
About Prana Biotechnology Limited
Prana Biotechnology was established to commercialise research into
Huntington disease, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative
disorders. The Company was incorporated in 1997 and listed on the
Australian Stock Exchange in March 2000 and listed on NASDAQ in
September 2002. Researchers at prominent international institutions
including The University of Melbourne, The Mental Health Research
Institute (Melbourne) and Massachusetts General Hospital, a teaching
hospital of Harvard Medical School, contributed to the discovery of
Prana’s technology.
For further information please visit the Company’s web site at www.pranabio.com.
Forward Looking Statements
This press release contains “forward-looking statements” within the
meaning of section 27A of the Securities Act of 1933 and section 21E of
the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The Company has tried to
identify such forward-looking statements by use of such words as
“expects,” “intends,” “hopes,” “anticipates,” “believes,” “could,”
“may,” “evidences” and “estimates,” and other similar expressions, but
these words are not the exclusive means of identifying such statements.
Such statements include, but are not limited to any statements
relating to the Company’s drug development program, including, but not
limited to the initiation, progress and outcomes of clinical trials of
the Company’s drug development program, including, but not limited to,
PBT2, and any other statements that are not historical facts. Such
statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, but not limited
to, those risks and uncertainties relating to the difficulties or delays
in financing, development, testing, regulatory approval, production and
marketing of the Company’s drug components, including, but not limited
to, PBT2, the ability of the Company to procure additional future
sources of financing, unexpected adverse side effects or inadequate
therapeutic efficacy of the Company’s drug compounds, including, but not
limited to, PBT2, that could slow or prevent products coming to market,
the uncertainty of patent protection for the Company’s intellectual
property or trade secrets, including, but not limited to, the
intellectual property relating to PBT2, and other risks detailed
from time to time in the filings the Company makes with Securities and
Exchange Commission including its annual reports on Form 20-F and its
reports on Form 6-K. Such statements are based on management’s
current expectations, but actual results may differ materially due to
various factions including those risks and uncertainties mentioned or
referred to in this press release. Accordingly, you should not
rely on those forward-looking statements as a prediction of actual
future results.
Contacts
Investor Relations
Buchan Consulting
Rebecca Wilson,
+61 3 9866 4722
rwilson@buchanwe.com.au
Media
Buchan
Consulting
Gavin Lower, +61 3 9866 4722
glower@buchanwe.com.au
