As technology advances leaps and bounds, one thing becomes blazingly clear; the general public, including the average investor, is often unable to fully understand just what the technology “does”. This isn’t just an isolated incident comprised of a group of below average intelligence consumer/investors, but instead is a widespread problem, confounding even the very analysts that are researching the companies.
Nowhere is this situation more evident than in the medical technology field. The advances in genomics, proteomics, drug discovery & development, process purification, pathogen inactivation, immunodiagnostics, DNA sequencing, and all facets of microbiology have been fantastic to say the very least. Yet as with most esoteric and extremely high tech developments, often it’s just a very small body of people with very specialized knowledge of the application that can fully understand and grasp the enormity of what’s being presented. For the layman however, the old adage of “like explaining the theory of relativity to a cave man” comes to mind. Without the years of specialized education, how is it possible to fully understand the capabilities and opportunities present in a new development? Often it’s simply not possible without some hand holding and guidance.
Pressure Biosciences is a company that exemplifies this very situation. Publicly traded under the ticker PBIO, this medical device company has a very very exciting machine it has developed to do very specialized sampling. Yet to the layman, or even a relatively advanced medical device analyst, the Jargon can seem daunting if not completely foreign. Let’s take a sample from their own web page as an example: “Specifically, lysis occurs when samples are subjected to alternating cycles of ambient and high pressure, up to 35,000 psi, in the hydrostatic reaction chamber” or “Our data also suggest that proteins and lipids can be isolated as two distinct fractions in a single step, thus allowing for the independent analysis of these molecules from a single sample in a far more rapid and efficient manner than possible with current methods. Finally, based on our results, we believe that lipids and proteins obtained using the PCT-dependent method will not require any additional purification to be directly compatible with HPLC, LC/MS analysis, and gel electrophoresis.”
We are quite certain that if you asked a random cross section of the population what that all means, or better yet, what sort of opportunity it creates, the image of a “blank stare” comes to mind. This is simply technology far and above the general knowledge level and thus can become something akin to “noise” to the investing public. This is why we find that tremendous opportunities are often passed by, simply because no one “got it”.
In simpler terms Pressure Biosciences has fashioned a way to subject cells to a wave of high and low pressure extremes that “busts” a cells membranes and thus it releases its contained proteins. This may not sound earth shattering at first light, but consider this. Before their “BaroCycler” was developed, virtually every other method of collecting pure cellular proteins of the study subject, were deficient in some way. Whether it was temperature differences, time of extraction differences, detergent tracers masking results, or any number of other variables, the fact is that you cannot do cutting edge research and discovery if your sample isn’t pure.
Once you have a pure sample and the variables of the testing have been removed, then it’s a much more exact science to try and locate the specific differences, markers, and characteristics that various proteins exhibit when disease is present. In fact, when their “Barocycler” machine was used in conjuncture with their newest patent pending method of combining their Pressure cycling technology with certain organic solvents, it has been proven to expose even more proteins from a single cell than ever realized before. Is this important and exciting? Indeed it is, and as witness to its value, some 20+ of the world’s most prestigious medical research facilities are now utilizing PBIO’s technology. As more proteins are discovered and collected, researchers have more chances to better understand their properties. Ultimately, therapies and cures can indeed hinge on proper specimens to work upon.
As medicine delves further into the world of the miniature in their fight against cancers, virus’s, genetic disorders, obesity and the gambit of modern ills, technology such as Pressure Biosciences will take center stage in their arsenal of tools to unlock the codes, and find the cures. As technology advances, the specimens provided by PBIO’s technology could very well be used in the next “breakthrough”. Now that’s a term all of us can understand.
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