Protea Announces Alzheimer's Research Collaboration With the University of Southampton, U.K.

Protea Biosciences Group, Inc. announced it has entered into a research collaboration with the University of Southampton, a leading biomedical and clinical research institution located in the United Kingdom. The collaboration will partner Protea's proprietary direct molecular imaging technology and capabilities with a team of Alzheimer's researchers at the University of Southampton, to study the molecular mechanisms of the aged brain, in order to identify markers that may indicate risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.

The announcement was made today at the Third Annual Marcum Microcap Conference held in New York City.

Roxana Carare M.D., Ph.D., leading the Carare Research Group at the University of Southampton, U.K., Matthew Powell Ph.D. and Greg Kilby Ph.D. of Protea Biosciences, will serve as the Principal Investigators for this collaboration.

Roxana Carare, M.D., Ph.D., who leads the cerebrovascular ageing research group at the University of Southampton, commented, "We are delighted that the novel molecular techniques from Protea Biosciences will be applied to brain tissue. We anticipate that novel biomarkers for the early detection of Alzheimer's disease or markers that identify the risk factors for developing Alzheimer's disease will be discovered and make significant progress in the field of biomedical research."

Steve Turner, Protea's Chief Executive Officer stated, "It has been a strategic goal of Protea to apply our direct molecular imaging technology and expertise to the field of neurodegenerative disease, and we are pleased to be doing so with the University of Southampton. We believe that the capabilities of our technology to directly identify and image hundreds of molecules produced by cells from a single analysis has the potential to identify new biomarkers and therapeutic points of intervention for use in the development of new Alzheimer's treatments and patient management tools."