Morgantown company wins patent for its protein technology
February 17, 2010 ·
Protea Biosciences Company in Morgantown has been granted a federal patent for its device that separates proteins during testing.
The device is designed to target proteins in the human body
that may be harmful to one’s health.
Stephen Turner is the CEO of Protea.
"When you take a sample, like a blood sample, you’re looking
for a protein that is specific to your disease of interest, it’s like a soup,
there are thousands and thousands of proteins in there, and you need to be able
to separate them," he said.
"What this patent is for is for technology that lets you
improve your ability to separate those proteins, so you can more efficiently
look at them."
Turner says the technology is already being marketed.
He
says he’s hopeful the device and other technologies will advance drug
development to fight diseases, and bring more jobs to the Morgantown-based
company.
"We’re up to about 34 employees now, double what we had a
year ago at this time. We’re certainly going to grow; we expect our revenue to
double in 2010, and that will certainly lead to more employment opportunity," he said.
Protea manufactures more than 200 products at its facilities
in Morgantown.
It works with
academic research laboratories worldwide to study proteins.