Friday 2 August 2013

Pressure BioSciences says additional data presented showing PCT platform gives new insights for potential biomarker discovery tool

Pressure BioSciences (OTCQB:PBIO) has announced that additional data, presented at the 27th annual symposium of the Protein Society held last month in Boston, has helped support the use of the company's pressure cycling technology (PCT) platform for generating information on proteins that other methods can't. 
In emailed comments, the company's CEO, Richard Schumacher, said this should result in additional sales of PCT systems as other scientists will also want to have this advanced tool, resulting in better diagnostics and therapeutics globally. 
At the Protein Society symposium this year, researchers from UCLA reported on the development of an improved Electron Paramagnetic Resonance (EPR) system based on the use of high pressure. The system, combined - for the first time ever - two "cutting-edge" EPR methods, according to the company's statement, including site directed spin labeling (SDSL) and double electronelectron resonance (DEER). 
“The study of proteins under pressure by EPR and other spectroscopic techniques, such as Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR), has the potential to greatly improve our understanding of the structure and function of proteins. This information could subsequently provide new insights into such important areas as biomarker discovery and rational drug design, and play an important role in the discovery process,” said the senior author of the study and a professor at UCLA, Dr. Wayne L. Hubbell. 
"This strategy allowed the investigation of dynamic events in proteins that would be difficult or even impossible to study by conventional EPR technology," added Pressure BioSciences
The use of EPR systems have been shown to provide key information on the structure, flexibility and function of proteins, according to the company's release, which is crucial to the development of new and improved diagnostics, therapeutics and vaccines. 
“We believe these and other data reported by researchers using pressure-based EPR and NMR systems strongly indicate that PCT can enhance the recovery, detection, and measurement of proteins from a wide variety of samples," said Schumacher in the statement Thursday.
"We further believe that the advantages of pressure-based spectroscopic methods are just now beginning to be realized by scientists, and that as the body of data continues to grow from high pressure-based spectroscopic studies, that PBI has the potential to become a major provider of high pressure equipment into the exciting and growing spectroscopy area.”
In June, the company, which is developing the PCT platform for multiple applications, closed the third and final tranche of a convertible preferred stock and warrants financing, raising a total of $2.03 million, slightly surpassing its inital $2 million goal. The company said at the time that its next goal is to significantly strengthen its cash position before year-end
Earlier that month, Pressure BioSciences said it had a new high throughput (HT) design for its patented pressure cycling technology (PCT) that would integrate its platform with the automated HT sample preparation and analytical system formats installed in thousands of research labs globally. The company  said it believes that this breakthrough has the potential to "significantly accelerate" its growth in existing and new PCT-based applications and products, as well as in its ability to attract new strategic partnerships and its overall revenue ramp-up. It reported a 21 per cent increase year-over-year in revenue with PCT products in May, and said it expects to release several new products in 2013. 
Pressure BioSciences is focused on the development, marketing, and sale of proprietary laboratory instrumentation and associated consumables based on PCT, which has several applications in the estimated $6 billion life sciences sample preparation market. Other applications for PCT include mass spectrometry, bio-therapeutics characterization, vaccine development, soil and plant biology, forensics, histology, and counter-bioterror applications. 

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