SOUTH EASTON, Mass. — Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq:PBIO – News) (“PBI” and the “Company”) today announced measurable progress in the development of a new procedure for the selective extraction of male DNA from mixtures of male and female cells. The project’s goal is to improve the processing of sexual assault evidence kits (also called “rape kits”); the new procedure is based on the Company’s patented Pressure Cycling Technology (“PCT”). The data were reported at the recent 17th Latin-American Symposium on Biotechnology, Biomedical, Biopharmaceutical, and Industrial Applications of Capillary Electrophoresis and Microchip Technology (“LACE 2011”). This international conference was held from December 2-6, 2011 in Hollywood, Florida.

Dr. Bruce R. McCord, Associate Director of the International Forensic Research Institute (IFRI), Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, Florida International University (FIU), and Ms. Deepthi Nori, MFS from the IFRI – FIU, presented the study, which was entitled Application of Pressure Cycling Technology (PCT) in Differential Extraction. Dr. McCord and Ms. Nori are working on the development of a unique, PCT-based method to differentially extract DNA from sperm and vaginal epithelial cells in the same mixture. Dr. McCord and Ms. Nori believe that this novel method has the potential to significantly decrease rape kit processing time, increase throughput, decrease costs, and improve results. They also believe that it may lead to better identification of criminals involved in sexual assaults, by helping to confirm suspect and victim contact.

Ms. Deepthi Nori, co-author of the study, said: “Current methods for processing rape kit samples require the selective extraction of male DNA from sperm cells in the presence of much larger quantities of female DNA. This is accomplished by first separating the sperm and non-sperm fractions. This processing step is essential, yet it remains difficult, complex, time-consuming, and not aligned with automation. It is truly a serious bottleneck in sexual assault casework.”

Dr. Nathan Lawrence, VP of Marketing at PBI, commented: “With as many as 400,000 unprocessed rape kits nationwide, and an estimated 180,000 new sexual assault cases each year, it is essential that improved methods for processing rape kits be developed. We believe that the data reported by Dr. McCord and Ms. Nori indicate that PCT can potentially increase the recovery of DNA from sperm cells, without the need for a long and laborious separation step. Based on their findings, we believe their unique PCT-based method could result in better quality of results and significantly increased throughput, which in turn could result in a reduction in the rape kit backlog and an increase in arrest rates for sex crimes. And for PBI shareholders, we believe this method could result in significant increases in Barocycler instrument placements and product revenue in 2012 and beyond.”

Dr. Bruce McCord said: “Our goal is to develop a PCT-based method that can selectively disrupt sperm cells in mixtures containing female cells, without the need to first separate the cells. At the LACE 2011 Meeting, we reported on the successful completion of this important processing step in laboratory samples. We have now begun to test this unique approach in complex mixtures and real sexual assault evidence kit samples. We expect to report on these new studies at the annual American Academy of Forensics Sciences (“AAFS”) Conference in February, and at other venues throughout the year.”

About Pressure BioSciences

Pressure BioSciences, Inc. (“PBI”) (Nasdaq:PBIO – News) is focused on the development, marketing, and sale of proprietary laboratory instrumentation and associated consumables based on Pressure Cycling Technology (“PCT”). PCT is a patented, enabling technology platform with multiple applications in the estimated $6 billion life sciences sample preparation market. PCT uses cycles of hydrostatic pressure between ambient and ultra-high levels to control bio-molecular interactions. PBI currently focuses its efforts on the development and sale of PCT-enhanced sample preparation systems (instruments and consumables) for mass spectrometry, biomarker discovery, bio-therapeutics characterization, vaccine development, soil and plant biology, forensics, histology, and counter-bioterror applications.