Cary-based Precision Human Biolaboratory (PHB), a biotechnology start-up, has been awarded a $250,000 loan from the N.C. Biotechnology Center to boost the company’s commercialization and development of a unique blood test for major depression. PHB is developing a new and unique proprietary technique for diagnosing and monitoring the therapy of clinical depression, a debilitating condition also referred to as major depressive disorder (MDD). Physicians traditionally diagnose and monitor MDD with subjective behavioral questionnaires and clinical assessments.
PHB's diagnostic platform includes a sensor chip to capture biomarkers in patients' blood samples that are specific to the target disease. It also includes a dedicated instrument to analyze the chip's signals and process the resulting data into a physician-friendly format. PHB has filed a number of US provisional patent applications, including patents covering its sensor chip and proprietary measurement technology and patents covering multiple biomarker diagnostic methods and applications of label-free protein array technology.
Precision Human Biolaboratory is a CED member.
North Carolina Biotechnology Center is
a CED member.