Nothing breeds serendipity like a good biochemistry laboratory. Just ask entomology professor Bruce Hammock.

Some 25 years ago, Hammock was intent on studying the effects of a new insecticide on mammals when he and a colleague stumbled across an enzyme that causes inflammation and high blood pressure -- also known as hypertension -- in people. While continuing with the pesticide research, Hammock also set out to identify chemical compounds that would inhibit the enzyme and possibly serve as a treatment for high blood pressure in human medicine.

Today, with backing from Bay Area venture capitalists, Hammock and colleagues have formed a new firm, Arête Therapeutics. The company plans to make use of Hammock's discoveries, licensed from UC. The four financial backers of Arête Therapeutics are among the best known investors in the medical and biotechnology fields, Hammock notes.

The nascent firm will make use of temporary laboratory space in UC Davis' environmental horticulture complex under a six-month lease agreement with the campus. The senior scientist in the Arête laboratory on campus will be researcher Al Baecker.

"We're delighted to be launching Arête's research activities here in Davis," said Hammock. "We appreciate the flexibility of campus leaders in making this temporary space available and hope this agreement will serve as a model for other startup firms associated with UC Davis faculty research efforts."

He added that UC Davis CONNECT, which fosters the growth of technology business ventures in the region, was helpful during the early stages of Arête's formation.

Hammock, who holds a joint appointment in UC Davis' College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences and Cancer Research Center, has long been recognized as a leader in his field. During his 25 years on the UC Davis faculty, he has focused his research in three areas: finding improved pest-control agents; determining the human-health effects of pesticides, food additives and drugs; and developing rapid analytical methods for detecting environmental and food contaminants.

He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, one of the highest honors for scientists in the United States.

In their work to find a potent drug to attack high blood pressure, Hammock and the Arête team are focusing on what is known as the "arachidonate cascade," a mechanism by which an unsaturated fatty acid called arachidonic acid is converted into anti-inflammatory compounds found in the cells of veins and arteries, kidneys, and lungs. The drugs developed by Arête will be designed to reduce blood pressure and prevent inflammation associated with heart attacks, strokes and kidney disease by targeting naturally occurring enzymes that tend to interfere with those anti-inflammatory compounds.

"The anti-hypertensive drugs currently on the market carry negative side effects," said John Hamer, Arête's co-founder and chief executive officer, who received his doctorate from UC Davis in 1987. "As a result, there is poor compliance among hypertensive patients, with some estimates reporting that up to 70 percent of patients are inadequately treated.

"Arête's first product will represent a new, first-in-its-class therapy for high blood pressure that will have a range of anti-inflammatory properties that can protect the heart and spare the kidneys from the damaging side effects of high blood pressure," Hamer said. He estimates there is a $20 billion market for such a drug, if it proves successful in treating high blood pressure and is well tolerated in human patients.

Hammock and colleagues have tested the experimental drugs in various animal models for hypertension and inflammation. Arête will continue this work and advance selected molecules into human clinical trials. The work on campus will not involve animal or human subjects.

The Arête team is hopeful that what began as a chance discovery in a campus lab will one day produce an effective treatment for millions of high blood pressure sufferers around the world.