Renovar Presents Data on New Kidney Diagnostic at American Transplantation Congress

Business Wire, May 25, 2005

MADISON, Wis. -- Renovar, Inc., an in vitro diagnostics company, announced results of its new test for kidney transplant patients, at the American Transplantation Congress in Seattle, Washington. The meeting is the Joint Annual Meeting of the American Societies of Transplant Surgeons and Transplantation.

The results, presented by Huaizhong Hu, Ph.D., a scientist at the University of Wisconsin and at Renovar, were part of a study conducted by Renovar at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Division of Transplantation. The Renovar assay, currently under development, is intended to monitor kidney function in transplant patients, based on the identification of key biomarkers in urine. The biomarkers are cytokines, small secreted proteins which mediate and regulate immunity, inflammation and the formation of blood cells.

The new diagnostic assay, which consists of four biomarkers for kidney injury, was evaluated in a 132 - patient study, which included 84 patients with kidney dysfunction, 29 patients with stable kidney function, and 19 healthy individuals as controls. The combination of the four cytokines indicated a high positive detection rate for kidney dysfunction.

The advantage of the non-invasive Renovar assay is that it may provide a significant advance over existing kidney testing based on serum creatinine, and allows for the diagnosis and monitoring of kidney injury.

Renovar is currently completing development of its first diagnostic test for evaluating kidney transplant patients, which consists of two biomarkers, MIG and IP-10, indicating kidney dysfunction in transplant patients. This second test under development, with an additional two biomarkers, would allow for the differentiation between acute and chronic kidney damage in the transplant patient.

"Renovar is very excited about the results of this study and its implications for rapidly detecting kidney injury in transplant patients in a format which does not cause patient discomfort, and potentially provides the attending physician with greater disease knowledge than currently available tests," commented Dr. Stuart Knechtle, Renovar Chief Scientific Officer, and a kidney transplant surgeon.

Renovar is an in vitro diagnostics company, located in Madison, Wisconsin, focused on the detection of kidney diseases. Its initial products allow for easy monitoring of kidney injury in transplant patients. There are 15,000 new kidney transplants per year and over 100,000 persons living with kidney transplants in the U.S.