Firm expects to develop instruments to be directly integrated with HPLC and MS equipment.
Pressure BioSciences (PBI) has exclusively licensed technology from Battelle Memorial Institute for analysis of protein samples. The deal covers a patent application filed on July 31 that describes a method and a system for improving analysis, including through an automated, in-line system utilizing pressure and a preselected agent to obtain a digested sample in a significantly shorter period of time than current methods while maintaining the integrity of the sample throughout the preparatory process, Battelle explains.
Pressure BioSciences believes that the claims will build upon and broaden its own existing IP position in using pressure cycling technology (PCT) to further enhance the quality and significantly decrease the processing time for protein analysis. The company believes that this combination may lead to the potential development of instrumentation to be directly integrated with high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and mass spectrometry equipment from sample preparation to final result.
“This invention combines pressure-accelerated protein digestion with HPLC separation,” notes Alex Lazarev, vp of research and development for PBI. “New instruments based on the combination of this invention and PCT could become a front-end to modern LC-MS instrumentation. These could eliminate major bottlenecks in biological sample preparation for protein analysis, since they could obviate the need for the operator to manually load and unload samples during processing.”
