Friday, March 20, 2009

Pressure Biosciences pulls in SBIR funding

By Mass High Tech staff

Pressure Biosciences Inc. has announced that it won a $109,998 Phase 1 Small Business Innovation Research grant from the National Institutes of Health, to be paid out over six months.

The grant, called “Sample Preparation Using Pressure for Microbiome Studies and Clinical Diagnostics,” will apply to the South Easton-based company’s research and discovery of microbes present in and on the human body, Pressure Biosciences officials said. The company will use its pressure cycling technology to conduct the research.

Following success of the Phase 1 SBIR research, Pressure Biosciences (Nasdaq: PBIO) said it expects to apply for Phase 2 SBIR funding late in 2009, which would provide the company with up to $1 million in funding over two years.

Pressure Biosciences develops bench-top instruments that use pressure cycling technology (PCT). PCT uses varying degrees of very high pressure — equivalent to the deepest parts of the ocean — and low pressure to get cells to do what science wants them to. The firm has integrated the technology into a series of the company’s bench-top products, called Barocyclers.

Last month, the company completed a private placement that brought the company $1.8 million from the sale of 156,980 units of equity.