NEW YORK (GenomeWeb News) – Pressure Biosciences today said it has signed a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, the American Registry of Pathology, and the Department of Veterans Affairs to develop pressure-based sample preparation methods for formalin-fixed paraffin embedded tissue.
The CRADA is directed at improving the quality and yield of biomolecular extractions, such as proteins, DNA, and RNA, from archival FFPE tissue samples, PBI said in a statement.
While formalin fixation followed by paraffin embedding is one of the most commonly used methods for preserving tissues for pathology evaluation, FFPE tissue poses significant challenges for the extraction of biomolecules, and formalin can result in the loss of biomolecules in the sample, PBI said.
"If these effects can be overcome, today's very sensitive and sophisticated analytical techniques could be used to study millions of archived FFPE samples," leading to the discovery of new biomarkers and the development of new interventions for cancer and other diseases, Timothy J. O'Leary, deputy chief research and development officer for the VA, said.
Terms of the CRADA were not disclosed.