Paradigm Genetics, Inc. (Nasdaq: PDGM - News) today announced that genes analyzed and confirmed as "hits" in its Arabidopsis thaliana GeneFunction Factory(TM) platform have moved into Monsanto Company's corn and soybean research-and- development testing pipeline. These genes may affect valuable agronomic traits, such as increased growth rates and stress resistance.

"We have been very pleased with the results from Paradigm's research and the success of our collaboration thus far," said Stephen Padgette, Ph.D., Vice President, Biotechnology, Monsanto Company. "The fact that we've received confirmed hits from Paradigm means the process of moving promising genes into crop testing at Monsanto is substantially expedited."

"This is a tremendous success for Paradigm," said Heinrich Gugger, Ph.D. "Over the years, we have demonstrated our leadership in determining the function of genes in plants. Now that Monsanto is incorporating genes analyzed by Paradigm into its crop trait pipeline, the potential for the commercial value of our research has clearly increased. This exciting step strengthens our current collaboration and open new doors in our relationship with Monsanto."

In its collaboration with Monsanto, Paradigm is running thousands of genes through its Gene Function Factory(TM) platform for the purpose of discovering those that can affect commercially relevant traits. As part of its recently restructured research plan, Paradigm also reanalyzes a select subset of the genes, a step that provides statistically rigorous confirmation of the genes' ability to affect valuable agronomic traits.