Researchers Report Significant Advantages of Pressure Cycling Technology

Leading, independent researchers from academia, government, pharma, and the biotech industry have reported significant advantages when using an innovative and enabling pressure cycling technology (PCT) platform in their critical sample preparation processes.

The presentations were made at several major scientific conferences. The studies involved areas such as biomarker discovery, therapeutics, and vaccine development. Dr. Nathan Lawrence, vice president of marketing for Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (South Easton, MA, USA), said, “We believe that PCT is a powerful technology platform that can be of meaningful value to thousands of research laboratories worldwide. Specifically, we believe that the incorporation of PCT into the sample preparation workflow of many of these laboratories can result in faster sample processing, improved quality, and a reduction in cost.”

Dr. Lawrence continued, “The number of presentations and publications from independent scientists citing the use and advantages of PCT is increasing, as are the number and frequency of unsolicited calls for information and price quotations. We believe this is not only a strong indication of increasing market awareness, but the beginning of market acceptance as well. We further believe that this early market acceptance will manifest itself in increased revenue over both the short and long term.”

Mr. Richard T. Schumacher, president and CEO of PBI, said, “We are in active discussions with several companies about regional and worldwide distribution of our product line. We remain on track to release our PCT-based FFPE [formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded] service in late 2012. We also continue to make progress in the development of our XstreamPCT HPLC digestion module and our high throughput microwell Barocycler system; we expect to release both new instrument systems by late 2013.”

Mr. Schumacher concluded, “We believe that our PCT-based instruments and consumables fill a major market need for a better, faster, more accurate, and more versatile sample preparation system, particularly in the important area of protein research. We also believe that we need a more active and aggressive sales and marketing approach to successfully introduce the advantages of the PCT platform to significantly more researchers than are aware of PCT today. To that end, we remain optimistic that we will raise the capital necessary to support our
continued operations and future growth, including the development and support of a more aggressive, broad-based sales and marketing program.”

A couple of the conferences where scientists presented on the use and significant advantages of PCT included the American Society for Mass Spectrometry (ASMS) annual meeting, held June 5-9, 2011, in Denver, CO, USA. Presenting scientists were from Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, US Department of Energy (DOE) (Richland, WA, USA); FDA-CFSAN (College Park, MD, USA); Merck Research Laboratories (West Point, PA, USA); and Centocor R&D, a division of J&J PRD (Radnor, PA, USA). Data were presented on the use of PCT to rapidly, effectively, and efficiently characterize specific proteins used in the development of biotherapeutic drugs (with hundreds of such drugs in the pipeline); to be the driving force behind an automated, in-line, on-demand high-throughput protein digestion module (the investigators believe this instrument will save significant time and money, compared to current methods); to help in the identification of strain-specific bacterial markers; to help identify new proteins of interest as potential vaccine targets; and to significantly reduce the time required for the characterization of monoclonal antibodies (biotherapeutics), with a concomitant increase in quality.

At the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) annual meeting, held May 2011 in New Orleans, LA, USA, the presenting scientist was Dr. Mark Lawrence of Mississippi State University (Starkville, USA). Data were presented on the use of PCT to help determine the composition of microorganisms in the core of oil wells. Dr. Lawrence indicated that PCT was invaluable in allowing them to isolate bacterial DNA from the community of microorganisms associated with oil deposits. They also indicated that understanding the bacterial community in petroleum deposits was important for the development of improved methods of oil recovery from oil fields.

Pressure BioSciences, Inc. is focused on the development and sale of instrumentation and consumables based on the novel, enabling technology platform called PCT. PCT uses cycles of hydrostatic pressure between ambient and ultra-high levels (up to 241 MPa and greater) to control biomolecular interactions. PBI currently holds 24 issued patents covering multiple applications of PCT in the life sciences field, including genomic and proteomic sample preparation, pathogen inactivation, the control of chemical reactions, immunodiagnostics, and protein purification. PBI currently focuses its efforts on the development and sale of PCT-enhanced biomolecule extraction and enzymatic digestion products designed specifically for the mass spectrometry marketplace, as well as sample preparation products for biomarker discovery, soil and plant biology, forensics, histology, and counter-bioterror applications.

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