Pressure BioSciences accelerates development of its Ultra Shear Technology pressure-based platform to target new markets

Pressure BioSciences Inc (OTCQB:PBIO) announced Wednesday that it will commit significant financial and operational resources to accelerate the development of the company’s pressure-based patented technology platform Ultra Sheer Technology, which gives milk and beverages a longer shelf life.

The South Easton, Massachusetts, company already holds two patents for Ultra Sheer Technology, which applies high-pressure levels greater than 20,000 pounds per square inch. The technology allows companies to extend the life of milk, and healthier drinks and juices, by reducing heat exposure in the preservation process through a combined application of elevated pressure and controlled times and temperatures.

Ultra Sheer Technology also utilizes high pressure to create intense, momentary liquid shearing forces at controlled temperatures that results in affordable and scalable homogenization of liquids, creams and gels. The technology creates nano-scale emulsion mixtures of otherwise immiscible fluids like oils in water that results in room-temperature stable homogenized products called nanoemulsions. For many oil-based nutritional and medical products, nanoemulsions can offer superior water solubility and increased bio-availability for improved absorption via oral or topical administration. It has wide potential uses in the pharmaceutical, industrial ink and retail or cosmetics industry.

“Nanoemulsions have been shown to exhibit improved absorption, higher bioavailability, and greater stability, while often requiring lower levels of stabilizing chemicals (emulsifiers) than macroemulsion products. Because of these significant advantages, nanoemulsions are currently the focus of numerous research efforts worldwide,” said Dr Edmund Ting, senior vice president of engineering for Pressure BioSciences.

READ: Pressure BioSciences developing breakthrough processing method for shelf-stable milk, dairy products

“Cost-effective scale-up of nanoemulsion processing at a commercial level has been historically challenging, but we believe that Pressure BioSciences innovative process design patents provide the key to commercial success for nanoemulsion products,” he added.

The company said there are “significant opportunities” for economically-scalable nanoemulsion products worldwide, such as premium dairy products and salad dressings.  

“These opportunities become particularly exciting in high value products like lubricants, cosmetics and nutraceuticals,” said Dr Nate Lawrence, vice president of marketing and sales at Pressure BioSciences.

In July, Pressure BioSciences announced its collaboration with researchers at Ohio State University to work on this new method of making sure milk and juice are free of pathogens and chemical preservatives and will not require refrigerated transport. The goal of this working venture was to bring Ultra Sheer Technology to market.

The collaborative project is funded by a US$891,000 grant from the US Department of Agriculture. Ohio State has granted Pressure BioSciences a US$318,000 sub-contract to build a working benchtop instrument and a pilot plant floor model Ultra Shear Technology machine.

“We have committed approximately 2,000 sq feet of recently acquired space to our Ultra Shear Technology platform development and nanoemulsions commercialization program,” said Pressure BioSciences CEO Richard T. Schumacher.

“We view this as an extraordinary opportunity that offers a range of major new market segments for us. We have instructed our engineering and R&D personnel to finalize the development of our first-generation UST instrument and to make the generation of proof-of-principle nanoemulsion data for multiple product areas their top priority. We have also reallocated significant time and resources from several staff members to the UST platform development program,” added the Harvard Medical School-trained serial entrepreneur.

The CEO said the compnay was “accelerating discussions” with multiple US and Canadian companies, academic organizations, and government agencies which have expressed interest in collaborating with Pressure BioSciences to access its technology.

READ: Pressure BioSciences’ ultra-high pressure products featured in Chicago food tech conference

“We are on course to establish collaborative development projects with multiple companies and research groups addressing different product and market opportunities. These programs should lead to revenue-generating products in the near future. We believe there are many industries that can benefit from UST-produced nanoemulsions and that this can be an area of rapid and sizeable growth for PBI moving forward,” said Schumacher.

Commencing commercial operations in 2007, Pressure BioSciences, which is based in South Easton, Massachusetts, is a leader in developing high-pressure-based technologies, platforms and services for the life sciences market worldwide.

The company recently reported second-quarter results that marked a tenth consecutive quarterly jump in products and services revenue, thanks to booming sales of lab instruments which utilize pressure to control bio-molecular interactions. For the quarter ended June 2018, the company reported an 18% jump in total revenue to US$638,800 compared to US$540,400 for the same period in 2017.

Contact Uttara Choudhury at [email protected]

Follow her on Twitter: @UttaraProactive 

Story by ProactiveInvestors