ETAGEN Pharma to Launch Single-Agent Therapeutic Editing Platform with Presentation at the 2015 BIO International Convention

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., June 11, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- ETAGEN Pharma™, a developer of Therapeutic Editing drugs, announced today that it will launch its proprietary Single-Agent Therapeutic Editing™ platform at the BIO International Convention.  Hosted by the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO), this year's largest global event for biotechnology will take place June 15th-18th at the Pennsylvania Convention Center in Philadelphia, PA. Tod Woolf, Ph.D., Co-Founder and CEO of ETAGEN, will present a talk entitled, "A Single-Agent Genome Editing Platform" on Tuesday, June 16^th in the 10:30-Noon session in Hall F. 

ETAGEN CEO Tod Woolf, noted, "After 18 months of intensive development of our Therapeutic Editing platform, we are pleased to be selected to give ETAGEN's first public presentation and to participate in the partnering Business Forum at BIO International.  We believe our platform provides a clear path to developing therapeutics that treat disease by precisely editing mutations in patients."

ETAGEN's Therapeutic Editing drug candidates are designed to specifically bind to and correct disease-causing nucleic acid sequence variants in tissues.  ETAGEN's platform employs a single chemically synthesized oligonucleotide that acts as both the guide and template for editing and thus does not require exogenous proteins.

ETAGEN's Single-Agent Therapeutic Editing oligonucleotides offer the following advantages:

• Small size, facilitating delivery to tissues in vivo
• Protein-free design, allowing for manufacture by chemical synthesis
• Non-immunogenic structure, allowing for multiple dosing
• Precise repair, permitting editing without insertions and deletions

About ETAGEN  
ETAGEN's goal is to correct disease by selectively editing out mutated sequences and to prevent disease by editing in protective genomic variants in tissues. ETAGEN is initiating research projects in cystic fibrosis and other rare genetic diseases, protection from Alzheimer's Disease and metabolic disease.  ETAGEN is headquartered in the greater Boston, MA, with chemical synthesis performed by TriLink BioTechnologies in San Diego, CA. 

ETAGEN Pharma was founded in 2014 by Tod Woolf, Ph.D. and Richard Hogrefe, Ph.D.  Dr. Woolf co-authored the first article using the term Therapeutic Editing™ and demonstrating efficient therapeutic editing in a model cellular system in 1995.  Dr. Woolf previously developed and commercialized innovative biomedical platforms and products now employed throughout the biopharmaceutical industry including mRNA Therapeutics™, Stealth™ RNAi and Self-Delivering rxRNA™.  He co-founded and served as CEO at both Sequitur (acquired by Life Technologies) and RXi Pharmaceuticals. Dr. Hogrefe is the CEO of TriLink Biotechnologies, a leading manufacturer of nucleic acid reagents and therapeutics that he co-founded 18 years ago.  Dr. Hogrefe is an author of over 40 patents and research articles on nucleic acid chemistry. 

Further information regarding ETAGEN can be obtained at:

WEB: WWW.ETAGENPharma.com  

SOURCE ETAGEN