Brighter Ideas, Inc. announces development of a new biomedical test for proteases and protease inhibitors. Tentatively called “GFP-on-a-String(GoaS),” this technology, invented in 2001 at Rutgers University, and officially patented in February 2008, has been licensed exclusively to Brighter Ideas, Inc.

GoaS has applications in research, drug discovery, diagnosis, and clinical testing of Alzheimer’s disease, HIV/AIDS, and many forms of cancer. In the case of Alzheimer’s disease, “GFP-on-a-String” will be used to detect and help combat the protease that leads to debilitating plaque formation in the brain. With respect to HIV/AIDS, GoaS will monitor drug-resistant mutations in HIV-associated proteases so that the most effective protease inhibitor drugs with the fewest side effects can be prescribed. As an aid in combating cancer, “GFP-on-a-String” will detect harmful proteases that allow cancer cells to spread throughout the body.

“GFP-on-a-String” will effectively compete with all other protease tests currently used in drug discovery and disease abatement. Other protease tests (assays) are (1) generic tests—measuring any protease that might be present in a sample without discriminating one protease from another or (2) highly specific—measuring only one protease type or class. In the latter case, it may be necessary to purchase dozens of separate, expensive assays to identify an unknown protease. GoaS automatically, in one, very high sensitivity test, measures any protease present in the sample while providing a precise identification of that protease with respect to a large electronic data base. No other protease assay does this sort of “fingerprinting”.

Stemming from over 35 years of research on Green-Fluorescent Protein by Dr. Ward, this unique, patented design for “GFP-on-a-String” generates more information about proteases involved in human diseases than any other system on the market.

Brighter Ideas, Inc. is pursuing collaborative licensing of IP for continued product development.