Harvard Medical School Symposium

On Friday, May 21, 2010, Harvard Medical School will host a symposium on the applications of ultra-high pressure in biotechnology. The full-day program focusing on the use of cycled ultra-high pressure (pressure cycling technology, or “PCT”) should highlight significant advancements in diagnostic and therapeutic medicine. Presenters include fifteen of the world’s leading scientists from academia, government, and industry discussing applications and recent scientific breakthroughs using this powerful platform.

At the center of the discussion will be technology developed by Pressure Biosciences (PBIO), a small biotechnology company located near Boston, MA. Pressure Bio has created a proprietary PCT that uses rapid cycles of hydrostatic pressure between ambient and ultra-high levels to control biomolecular interactions. Advantages of PCT include a high dress of precision, reproducibility, convenience, speed, and safety in broad applications, including genomics, proteomics, drug discovery and development, process purification, pathogen inactivation, immunodiagnostics and DNA sequencing.

A Giant Leap Forward

The full-day symposium at Harvard, the first of its kind dedicated to one specific research technology, is a giant leap forward for Pressure Biosciences. The recently released abstracts, available on the company’s website, point to PCT becoming a common tool for scientific investigation, sample preparation, and protein extraction.

Potential market uses include mass spectrometry, sample preparation products for biomarker discovery, soil and plant biology, and applications in forensics, histology and counter-bioterrorism. We believe that presentation of these abstracts could lead to meaningful acceleration in sales of PCT systems at Pressure Bio.

Pressure Bio currently holds 14 U.S. and 10 foreign patents covering multiple applications of PCT in the life sciences field, including genomic and proteomic sample preparation, pathogen inactivation, the control of chemical and enzymatic reactions, immunodiagnostics and protein purification. The company currently focuses its efforts in the development and sale of PCT-enhanced enzymatic digestion products designed specifically for the above applications.

An Underappreciated Story

The army of leading scientific minds and top research institutions lining up behind ultra-high pressure is astounding. The company’s customer base reads like a blue-chip healthcare fund containing some of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and medical device companies.

Meanwhile, the stock of Pressure Bio goes relatively unnoticed by the market. In our view, the powerful scientific data to be presented tomorrow should bring increased awareness Pressure Bio. With increased investor attention, we expect the shares to have a meaningful move higher in the next few months. It could all start tomorrow at Harvard Medical School.
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