Ambrx Inc. announced today today that it has been issued U.S. Patent No. 7,083,970 entitled "Methods and Compositions for the Production of Orthogonal tRNA – Aminoacyl tRNA Synthetase Pairs."

The patent covers Ambrx’s ReCODE™ technology, which has served as the platform for the development of the company’s current therapeutic product candidates.

"This patent addresses the methodology that allows us to distinctively incorporate a novel amino acid into a protein," said Martin A. Mattingly, Pharm.D., Ambrx’s president and chief executive officer.

Ambrx has focused on advancing this technology since licensing the underlying rights from The Scripps Research Institute, where it was invented in the laboratory of Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D. The new patent broadly claims the in vivo incorporation of unnatural amino acids into proteins, and is not limited by the type of cell, tRNA synthetase, tRNA, unnatural amino acid, selector codon or resultant protein product made using the ReCODE™ technology.

All issued U.S. patents can be viewed on the Web site of the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office at www.uspto.gov.

About Ambrx
Ambrx, Inc., is a biopharmaceutical company focused on optimizing existing protein drugs. Using its patented technology, the company can overcome the performance challenges of high-value commercial proteins by improving their efficacy, safety and ease of use. Ambrx’s core ReCODE™ technology allows for the precise, site-specific substitution of a novel amino acid within a protein. This technology is applicable to multiple protein products across numerous therapeutic areas. Ambrx expects to initiate clinical trials with a long-acting, PEGylated human growth hormone in early 2007, followed by an enhanced, PEGylated interferon alpha molecule. With its innovative approach, Ambrx has successfully bridged the gap between a platform that works and drug development. For additional information, call 858.875.2400 or visit www.ambrx.com.

Ambrx® and ReCODE™ are trademarks of Ambrx, Inc.