Protea Announces Biopharm Industry Collaboration

MORGANTOWN, W. Va., Dec. 08, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Protea Biosciences Group, Inc. PRGB ("Protea") announced today it is collaborating with Agilent Technologies, Inc. A ("Agilent"), to address customer challenges within existing Biopharma bioanalytical workflows in order to meet the emerging needs of the growing biopharmaceutical industry.

Under Terms of the Agreement, a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), Protea, using Agilent instrumentation combined with its technology, will develop workflows that focus on developing new methods for the field of metabolomics.

"The field of biotherapeutics is advancing rapidly, and is in need of new, innovative solutions that identify changes in the ‘metabolic profiles' of cells due to disease processes and drug interactions," stated Greg Kilby, PhD., Protea's Vice President & Chief Operating Officer. He added, "To accelerate the pace of drug development, we need to know how a new drug interacts with the body as a whole - as completely and as early in the drug development process as possible. We believe new metabolomics workflows, including use of our LAESI mass spec imaging technology, will help address the challenges of the ballooning costs and widespread failures endemic to the drug development processes today."

"To meet the needs of the biopharmaceutical industry, Agilent looks forward to working with Protea to develop mass spectrometry based solutions across a wide range of biopharm applications, including innovative solutions for metabolomics," commented Tiffani Manolis, Agilent's Biopharm/Pharm Marketing Manager.

Metabolites are the molecular products of living cells. All cells produce them, and they are essential to all bodily functions. A cell's metabolic profile can change due to health, nutrition or environmental factors. Metabolomics represents the goal to identify all the thousands of metabolites being produced by specific cells, and to identify changes that take place in the "metabolic profiles" of cells due to disease processes and drug interactions. Metabolomics also is being used to improve cellular processes that support high production and quality of recombinant protein in biopharmaceutical manufacturing.

About Protea Biosciences Group, Inc.:  Protea Biosciences Group, Inc. PRGB provides innovative bioanalytical solutions to the pharmaceutical and life science industries by applying the Company's proprietary technology to identify and characterize the proteins, metabolites, lipids and other biologically-active molecules which are the byproducts of all living cells and life forms. Protea is the leader in mass spectrometry imaging services (MSI), providing a revolutionary capability that enables the identification and spatial display of biologically-active molecules in tissue and cells. MSI can be performed without sample preparation, labeling or antibody techniques, thereby integrating for the first time direct identification of molecules with anatomic pathology.

Forward-Looking Statements; This press release may contain statements relating to future results or events, which are forward-looking statements.  Words such as "expects", "intends", "plans", "may", "could", "should", "anticipates", "likely", "believes" and words of similar import may identify forward-looking statements. These statements are not historical facts, but instead represent only the Company's belief regarding future events, many of which, by their nature, are inherently uncertain and outside of the Company's control.  It is possible that the Company's actual results and financial condition may differ, possibly materially, from the anticipated results and financial condition indicated in these forward-looking statements.  Further, information concerning the Company and its business, including factors that potentially could materially affect the Company's business and financial and other results, are contained in the Company's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, available at www.sec.gov.  All forward-looking statements included in this press release are made only as of the date of this press release, and we do not undertake any obligation to publicly update or correct any forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances that subsequently occur or of which we hereafter become aware.

Protea and LAESI are registered trademarks of Protea Biosciences Group, Inc.