In the course of our product development, we have engaged in collaborations with academic, clinical and corporate scientists to validate the applicability of our technology and products to biomarker discovery. Through these collaborations, Prospect has consistently demonstrated the ability of the Edge technology to identify unique biomarkers.

Additionally, from the Company's earliest stages, we have had several partners who have been key in helping us meet the challenges of starting and growing our business. These partnerships have played a strategic role in the development and commercialization of our technology and products.

Collaborations

In collaboration with the UMass Medical School, Prospect investigated the role of ER chaperones, and other heat shock protein family members, in the T cell changes that occur with the induction of type 1 diabetes. Using Edge technology, the translocation of specific HSP’s between subcellular compartments was discovered, providing the identity of several potential biomarkers for type 1 diabetes.

In a second collaboration at UMass Medical School, Prospect was provided with comparative cell cultures to evaluate the effect of the ER stress-inducing drug thapsigargin on the pathway marker, IRE1. In addition to Edge technology identifying a unique pathway change following treatment with thapsigargin, Prospect identified more than 20 potential biomarkers associated with ER-stress within this specific pathway, including two previously unidentified proteins.

The Company has had a long-term collaboration with clinicians at the University Medical and Dental School of New Jersey, to evaluate the applicability of Edge technology and EDGE*TEST to clinical samples. In recently presented research, Prospect's technology has been demonstrated to reproducibly identify and quantitate a biomarker specific for prostate cancer in biopsied tissue samples. An additional goal of our collaborative research is to minimize the number of false positives arising from traditional prostate cancer testing methods. False positives lead to hundreds of thousands of needless biopsies yearly. In our current studies, the EDGE*TEST predictability for "not cancer" based on the initial biopsy was significantly superior to the traditional PSA and PCa3 tests. After 18 months follow-up, EDGE*TEST still shows high predictive data of benign disease and not cancer.

The Company has worked on several projects with Pel-Freez Biologicals, a supplier of small laboratory animals, to develop diet-based models which simulate certain diseases or dysfunctions.

Animals fed a diet high in fat show significant loss of synaptic function, even after only four weeks of this diet. Brains from rats fed high fat and control diets were analyzed using Edge Technology for several markers of synaptic dysfunction. Initial studies have demonstrated a significant correlation of the biomarker phosphosynapsin with the brains from rats fed a high fat diet.

Recent epidemiological and experimental studies have linked folate deficiency with several neurodegenerative conditions, including stroke, Alzheimer's disease and Parkinson's disease. In a second collaboration with Pel-Freez Biologicals, livers from rats fed folate-deficient and control diets were compared using biomarkers for oxidative stress. Significant differences in marker distribution within the Edge-separated fractions of the control and treated animals were observed. In addition, 6 biomarkers unique to either the control or treated groups were identified.

Partners

Since 2006, the Company has maintained its office and laboratory at the Enterprise Development Center (EDC) on the campus of New Jersey Institute of Technology, in Newark, New Jersey. The EDC currently houses nearly 90 companies employing more than 300 people.

Prospect has partnered with Princeton Separations, Inc. for many years in a wide range of areas involving the commercialization of the Edge technology and its related consumables. Princeton Separations, located in Freehold, New Jersey, is a manufacturing-based biotechnology company specializing in molecular separations.

In December 2008, Prospect received an Edison Innovation Commercialization Fund award from the New Jersey Economic Development Authority (NJEDA). The NJEDA Commercialization Fund provides New Jersey life sciences or technology companies financing to achieve “proof of concept”, to complete beta testing and to commence product commercialization.