DARIEN, October 19, 2001 - Darien, IL based Eichrom Technologies, Inc., announces the formation of a new company, EPROGEN, INC. EPROGEN has been established to commercialize Eichrom’s newly developed proteomics technology that will significantly improve the characterization and 2-dimensional mapping of total proteins present in complex biological mixtures such as cell lines, tissues and sera. This new technology, ProteoSep™, is an all-liquid phase LC approach which analyzes the intact proteins present in the samples and then maps them in a display format using a unique software program to easily highlight the complex protein expression. The ProteoSep maps display the proteins in 2 dimensions with the first dimension being the protein pI and the second dimension either hydrophobicity or Mass of the protein. ProteoSep is in fact an all-liquid phase alternative to 2-D gels.

ProteoSep is the culmination of a joint development effort between EPROGEN and the University of Michigan. To date, the ProteoSep technology has been applied to a number of cancer cell lines in the search for new cancer markers and for establishing the efficacy of new drug candidates. The primary use of the ProteoSep technology is to rapidly and reliably sort out complex biological protein expression in a way that can accommodate the frenetic pace of screening potentially new drug candidates and the evaluation of new approaches to disease therapy.

ProteoSep has clearly demonstrated potential to revolutionize new drug target discovery and clinical diagnostics. Initially, EPROGEN, INC. will offer a contract analysis service, ProteoSep kits and software (for companies wanting to analyze their own samples using their existing equipment) and IPAC™, a novel protein separations chelate resin.