"Powerful New Tool" For AIDS Is Reported ...( Approach permits targeted patient- spe...),Health

State College, PA-- February 25, 1998 -- Science reported, in its 20 February 1998 issue, a novel AIDS directed technology developed by Dr. Marc Hellerstein of the University of California at Berkeley and the University of California at San Francisco.

The technology will be commercialized exclusively by SpectruMedix Corporation (OTC: SMDX), of State College, PA., which is playing a crucial ongoing role in developing the required instrumentation. Initial in vivo results of T cell proliferation rates in AIDS patients using isotope mass spectrometric techniques were announced Feb. 3, 1998 at the 5th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections. The results are part of an ongoing collaboration designed to change the diagnosis and management of AIDS and to optimize its therapeutic approach by allowing physicians to rapidly measure the efficacy of a drug or treatment modality in an individual patient. This diagnostic technique may finally allow physicians to establish, based upon objective evidence, the proper time for an individual AIDS patient to begin taking medication and which medication is best suited for this particular individual. (A description of this new technique was published in the 20 January 1998 issue of The Proceedings of The National Academy of Sciences: 'Measurement of Cell Proliferation etc.')

Science reported that researchers have long sought such a technique to help reveal the intricacies of the battle between the immune system and HIV. Dr. David Ho, head of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center in New York City is quoted in the article in Science as saying "I think they've made a genuine contribution to the field".

The results of this study indicate that the body's capacity to make new cells was in fact the key determinant of T cell counts and the pat
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Contact: Bernard Sonnenschein
bernard@spectrumedix.com
814-867-8600
SpectruMedix Corporation
25-Feb-1998