Partnering up for sample prep

Pressure BioSciences enters three-month \"proof-of-concept\" collaboration with Alfa Wassermann

Lloyd Dunlap
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WEST BRIDGEWATER, Mass.—PressureBioSciences Inc.(PBI) recently announced a collaboration agreement with AlfaWassermann Proteomic Technologies, LLC (AWPT) to co-develop sample preparationmethods to enrich for low abundance proteins and sub-cellular complexes fromcells and tissues utilizing PBI's Pressure Cycling Technology (PCT) and AWPT'sAW Promatix 1000. Financial Terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.
The collaboration is intended to last for three months andcan be extended by mutual consent. Intellectual property developed will beco-owned, and there is an agreement to cross-license new intellectual propertyto allow each company to have a worldwide, exclusive, royalty free license intheir area of focus – PCT sample preparation for PBI and post-extractionprotein processing for AWPT.
"The three month evaluation involves PBI and AWPT workingtogether to analyze sample preparation processes and organelle integrity," saysDino DiCamillo, president, AWPT. "It is an opportunity for AWPT to gainexperience with the PCT Sample Preparation System (PCT SPS) in-house and forPBI to investigate the quality of the fractions collected from the AW Promatix1000. The collaboration is for "proof-of-principle," which we expect can beaccomplished in about three months; however, if a longer period of evaluationis needed, the agreement can be extended by mutual consent. We expect thatproduct development will follow successful proof-of-principle, but this phaseof the relationship is not covered under the current collaboration agreement."
According to DiCamillo, the PBI technology brings robustnessand reproducibility to the tissue and cell processing aspect of samplepreparation and the Promatix 1000 brings automated, enriched and fractionatedorganelles and macromolecular complexes to the researcher. Together the twoprocesses reduce the amount of time, enhance reproducibility and increaseproductivity for low abundance proteomics, cell transport and drug metabolismresearch. This should have impact in basic research, metabolic disorders anddrug discovery research.
Richard T. Schumacher, Founder, President, and CEO ofPressure BioSciences, comments: "Having ready access to the AWPT technologywill be beneficial to our scientists as they continue the development offront-end, proteomic extraction methods for state-of-the-art, downstreaminstrumentation. We hope that the combination of the PCT Sample PreparationSystem with the AW Promatix 1000 will result in an elegant and compellingplatform for the enrichment of low abundance proteins and sub-cellularcomplexes, bio-molecules that many believe are essential to the development ofa better understanding of human disease."
DiCamillo adds: "The proposed research plan is focused onthe development of PCT-based lysis methods suitable for the isolation of intactsub-cellular complexes, including organelles. We expect such methods will helpto maximize the performance of our flagship product, the AW Promatix 1000—anovel instrument that automates the separation, fractionation, and enrichmentof sub-cellular particles." The collaborators expect that pressure cyclingtechnology will enhance the sample preparation aspect over most traditionalmethods allowing the AW Promatix 1000 to produce highly reproducible fractionsfor researchers. It is hoped that the PBI PCT sample preparation system willoffer more reliable, reproducible, rapid, controllable, and safe extraction,compared to current methods. Studies pioneered by Pressure BioSciences, Inc.(PBI) (formerly known as Boston Biomedica, Inc.) have shown that the rapid,alternating application of high pressure to biological molecules can result inmore rapid, reproducible, and safe processing, which can be finely controlledby modulating the pressure, temperature, and number or pressure cycles.
 

Lloyd Dunlap

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