Oncor Inc. on Wednesday said it has signed an exclusiveworldwide licensing agreement with the University of Alabamafor the p58 protein kinase gene, a potential tumor suppressorand an agent for diagnosis of certain cancers.

"The p58 protein appears to be a gene that regulates the cellcycle, and very preliminary data strongly suggests that this is atumor suppressor," said Jay George, Oncor vice president ofresearch and development. "We will start preclinical studies inMarch to try to determine the association of the gene with anumber of tumors."

p58 is under investigation at St. Jude's Children's ResearchHospital in Memphis by associate professor Vincent J. Kidd,who was at Alabama when he started his work. The gene maybe associated with malignant melanoma and nueroblastoma, achildhood brain tumor, as well as ductal breast cancer, Merkelcell cancer and endocrine neoplasia.

"The license rights are broad and would include patentscovering therapy as well as diagnosis," company PresidentStephen Turner told BioWorld.

Oncor, which is focused on DNA probe technology, paid alicensing fee and will pay sales royalties to the University ofAlabama and St. Jude's.

Oncor's stock (NASDAQ:ONCR) closed up 38 cents at $9.25. -- KH

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