Naprogenix is a biotechnology company harnessing the power of genomics and proprietary pharmacological screens to access the chemical diversity of plants and discover novel active compounds useful as leads for pharmaceuticals and agrochemicals. Founded in 2002, the company is the exclusive licensee of technology developed at the Kentucky Tobacco Research and Development Center.

Executive Summary:Naprogenix proprietary genomic and pharmacological screening technology is appropriate for any biologically active target and is capable of delivering plant-derived compounds at efficiencies competitive with those of conventional synthetic approaches. The STTR project funded by the National Cancer Institute which is the basis for the current Kentucky Matching Funds Award is one example. Plants are known to make “phytoestrogens”, compounds that interact with human estrogen receptors, which are protective in many kinds of cancer. In the current project the objective is to make very large populations of plant cells containing activation mutations, and to select those mutants which are over-producing phytoestrogens. To facilitate this we have expressed the human estrogen receptor in the plant cells and linked it to the expression of a fluorescent protein. The “active” cells can now be extremely rapidly separated from “inactive” cells. The intention is then to establish what active compounds are contained in the active plant cell cultures, and to attempt to regenerate novel “medicinal” plants from these. If the mutations have generated novel compounds, then these may be patentable as anti-cancer treatments. If the cultures are over-producing known phytoestrogens, then the cultures, or activated genes, or active regenerated plants are all patentable. Thus the Naprogenix technology differs greatly from conventional plant drug discovery in its ability to generate several different types of “genomic” products.