BioCancell

the appointment of Prof. Roger D. Kornberg, Ph.D., to its Scientific Advisory Board. Prof. Kornberg is professor of structural biology at Stanford University, California, and responsible for a number of fundamental discoveries throughout his years of biochemistry research. In 2006, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, having already won a number of other awards and honorary doctorates, including the 2006 Horwitz Prize from Columbia University.

Prof. Kornberg holds a bachelor's degree from Harvard University, and a doctorate from Stanford.

Prof. Kornberg joins Prof. Mark L. Tykocinski, M.D. (Simon Flexner Professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and President of two major American academic pathology societies – the American Society for Investigative Pathology and the Association of Pathology Chairs), Prof. Aaron Ciechanover, M.D., Ph.D. (Winner of the 2004 Nobel Prize in Chemistry and Distinguished Professor at the Technion - Israel Institute of Technology), Prof. Yechezkel Barenholz, Ph.D. (Professor of Biochemistry at Hebrew University-Hadassah Medical School and recipient of many awards, including a Kaye Innovation Award), Prof. Yaakov Naparstek, M.D. (Chairman of Medicine at Hadassah University Hospital and Professor of Medicine at the Hebrew University-Hadassah School of Medicine) and Prof. Hermona Soreq, Ph.D. (Dean of the Faculty of Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and recipient of numerous awards and honors, including the Kaye Innovation Award).

BioCancell’s technology is both Personal and Targeted. The approach is based on the identification of particular genes that are highly expressed only in tumors ("Target Genes"). The regulatory sequences of these Target Genes are used to drive the expression of a toxin gene exclusively within tumor cells, enabling targeted tumor-cell destruction, leaving normal cells intact. In effect, the plasmid acts as “smart bombs”, activated only inside their targets thus destroying only the cancerous cells, while leaving healthy cells intact.

The patient's eligibility for the treatment is determined by analyzing the patient's tumor for the expression of the specific Target Genes. The diagnosis of the expression of the Target Genes are, therefore, a prerequisite for treatment and is made possible through the Company's proprietary diagnostic technology that enables detection of even a single malignant cell. Only those patients with high expression levels of the Target Genes in their tumor are eligible for treatment with high confidence of success.

Discovered by Professor Avraham Hochberg in humans, H19 is an oncofetal gene that encodes RNA (with no protein product) that is expressed at high levels in over 30 types of human cancer tissues, while existing at a nearly undetectable level in the surrounding normal tissues, thus making it an optimal weapon in the fight against cancer.

The gene is expressed abundantly in the human placenta and in several embryonic tissues, but is repressed post-natally and only re-expressed with the appearance of cancer, within cancer cells. Studies show that H19 fulfills an important role in the process of tumorigenesis, and it is thought that the gene enables tumor cells to survive and proliferate under stress conditions.

BioCancell Therapeutics Inc. is a biopharmaceuticals corporation specializing in the development of Patient-Oriented, Targeted Therapy for the treatment of numerous types of cancer. The Company's proprietary technology constitutes a novel paradigm for the targeted destruction of cancer cells, with no effect on normal surrounding tissue and no observed side effects, allowing for long-term, safe treatment and prevention of cancer.

BioCancell was co-founded in 2004 by Professor Avraham Hochberg, Professor of Molecular Biology at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, based on technology developed by him over the past 15 years.

Between 2006-2008, BioCancell has successfully completed private rounds of funding and an initial public offering totalling $12.5 million. Its securities are traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange, with the major stockholders being Clal Biotechnology Industries, a member of the IDB group of companies, and Prof. Hochberg.

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