Protea Enters Into Collaborative Research Agreement with the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute

Protea Biosciences Group, Inc. ("Protea") announced that it has begun a collaborative research initiative with the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (Dana-Farber) that uses Protea's next generation LAESI direct molecular imaging technology to analyze cancer cells. The initial focus is early stage lung adenocarcinoma.

The studies will utilize LAESI technology to generate molecular data profiles of cancer cells in tissue and biofluids to improve the understanding of a cancer's origin. Protea's proprietary LAESI technology generates very large molecular data profiles of cancer cells in their native state, without the need for time-consuming sample preparation.

The principal investigators are Robert J. Downey, M.D. and Andre Moreira, M.D. at MSK and Franziska Michor, Ph.D. at Dana-Farber.

"We are pleased to have this opportunity to apply our LAESI technology to provide improved molecular profiling of cancer cells and tissue samples," commented Steve Turner, Protea's CEO. He added, "In the future we anticipate applying our direct molecular profiling technology to other tissue sample types, including 3 dimensional cell cultures and synthetic biology tissues, to provide comprehensive molecular profiling of tumors rapidly and directly."