T Cell Diagnostics Inc. plans to sponsor a satellite symposiumtoday concerning its CD4 assay TRAx as part of the NinthInternational Conference on AIDS.

CD4 is the receptor on helper T cells, where HIV is believed tobind prior to infecting this class of white blood cells. CD4 levelsare used to track illness and response to therapy.

The assay solubilizes the receptors and analyzes them with amicotiter colorimetric immunoassay that is intended to befaster, easier and cheaper than flow cytometry.

In U.S. tests of 218 blood samples, TRAx results correlated from89 to 95 percent with flow cytometry. Those results wereconfirmed in multicenter trials of close to 700 samples, acompany spokeswoman said.

TRAx is already being marketed in Europe and is awaitingapproval in the U.S. from the FDA. T Cell Diagnostics is asubsidiary of T Cell Sciences Inc. (NASDAQ:TCEL) of Cambridge,Mass. -- Nancy Garcia

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