CuraGen’s Biotech Advances Keep Stock Soaring

Shares of CuraGen Corp. surged Thursday after a scientific journal said the drug company completed the first map of protein interaction within an entire model organism, a “breakthrough” that may lead to new ways to prevent or treat cancer and other diseases.

CuraGen’s stock (ticker symbol: CRGN) zoomed $31.56, or 24%, to a record $163.56 on Nasdaq. In the last 12 months it has risen 2,279%.

The New Haven, Conn.-based company, working in collaboration with a doctor at the University of Washington in Seattle, said completing the map within a model organism such as yeast was a milestone in its efforts to identify the protein interactions within other known genomes--or genetic material in a cell--including those of fruit flies and humans.

CuraGen expects it will take 24 months to identify the protein interactions for the human genome once the sequence is publicly available. Scientists may one day be able to tell what proteins are interacting in cancerous human cells, pushing them to divide uncontrollably.

Biotechnology stocks have been among the market’s star performers over the last year. The Amex index of 15 biotech stocks jumped 111% in 1999 and is already up 34% in 2000. Genome-related shares are getting the biggest boost lately.