BCR Corporation to Unveil Breakthrough Biosensor Platform at National Institutes of Health “Life Sciences Showcase”

Jamestown, Rhode Island, June 16, 2006 – BCR Diagnostics, a pioneer in spore-based biosensor technology, announced today that it has been selected by the National Institutes of Health to take part in the final stage of its Commercialization Assistance Program (NIH-CAP) called the Life Sciences Showcase. The opportunity will provide BCR the chance to present its latest technologic breakthrough to a group of business development executives, venture capitalists and industry leaders, and hone its commercialization strategy in an effort to bring its products to market. “NIH-CAP has been an invaluable experience,” said Boris Rotman, CSO at BCR. “We’ve gained insight into our business plan, received feedback from key experts and explored business opportunities for the future. Our goal is to find a strategic partner to help us through the FDA approval process and I’m optimistic about the outcome.” At the Showcase, BCR will discuss its novel engineering process for creating synthetic phenotypes in living Bacillus spores. Specifically, BCR will discuss fluorogenic spores (F-spores™) designed to perform as self-reporters of viability. “An important commercial application of F-spores™ is rapid (less than 60 minutes) sterility testing,” said Rotman. “Conventional tests using normal spores require two to four days so a real-time alternative is crucial to ensuring safety in the healthcare, pharmaceutical and food and beverage industries.” The NIH-CAP Life Sciences Showcase will be held on June 29 at the San Jose Convention Center in Silicon Valley, California. # # # About BCR Diagnostics Founded by Boris Rotman (emeritus professor of Brown University Medical School), BCR is a privately held Rhode Island corporation dedicated to developing novel biosensor platforms for detecting extremely low levels of bacteria in less than 30 minutes. Life-saving applications for BCR's products include clinical diagnostics, biological warfare defense, testing platelets intended for transfusion, screening food and beverages, and environmental monitoring. For more information, visit www.bcrbiotech.com.

BCR CORP. ANNOUNCES MOVE TO NEW RESEARCH FACILITIES

Jamestown, Rhode Island, March 2003 – BCR Corp. announced today its expansion into research facilities at the Aquidneck Corporate Park in Newport, RI. The new laboratories are well equipped for biochemical, microbiological, and optical work related to BCR's biosensing technology.
BCR is a privately held Rhode Island corporation dedicated to developing novel biosensor platforms for detecting extremely low levels of bacteria in real time (i.e., under 5 minutes). Currently, bacteriologic testing requires between 24 and 48 hours for completion. Life-saving applications for BCR's products include clinical diagnostics, biological warfare defense, testing blood products intended for transfusion, screening food and beverages, environmental monitoring, and sterility testing.
“Current work in the new laboratories is largely devoted to developing a real-time biosensor for screening bacterially-contaminated platelets immediately before transfusion,” stated Dr. Boris Rotman, Director of Research at BCR Corp. He indicated that the project is funded by the National Institutes of Health because transfusion-related bacterial infections remain a serious public health problem. Among blood products, platelets are especially susceptible to bacterial contamination because they are stored at room temperature for up to five days. Since statistically one in about 2,000 platelet units is known to be bacterially contaminated, screening the units before transfusion is expected to reduce the risk of sepsis among patients.
Also noteworthy is that the U.S. Patent Office has recently issued a new patent extending coverage of BCR’s spore-based biosensor technology. This is the fourth U.S. patent awarded to BCR for protecting the biosensor intellectual property.

PATENT AWARDED ON REAL-TIME DETECTION SYSTEM THAT COULD IMPROVE MEDICAL INTERVENTION FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES

Jamestown, Rhode Island, December 2001 - BCR Corporation (BCR) announced the issuance of US Patent "Analytical Systems Based on Spore Germination" (No. 6,228,574) describing highly sensitive technology for real-time assessment of trace levels of bacterial contamination. The biosensor operating system, termed LEXSAS™ (for Label-free Exponential Signal-Amplification System) is unique in that it utilizes spores as ultra sensitive nanodevices capable of sending light signals when encountering bacterial cells.

"This invention is especially important at this time because infectious disease is reemerging as a major cause of death in many countries including the U.S. Early diagnosis of microbial infection could radically improve medical intervention and monitoring of patients who present symptoms of serious life-threatening infectious diseases such as primary sepsis and bacterial meningitis," stated Dr. Boris Rotman, Vice President of BCR Corporation. "For example, in cases of primary sepsis, a disease characterized by bacteria in the blood, the response of individual patients to antibiotics could be assessed by blood testing before and during antibiotic treatment." He said he chose this example "because sepsis affects 500,000 patients each year in the United States and has a mortality rate estimated at 20% to 50%."

The extraordinary ability of LEXSAS™ to detect bacteria in less than 10 minutes is due to complex molecular mechanisms that spores normally use for reproduction. Using state of the art digital imaging and data processing, the light signals provide dynamic profiles of the same biochemical information normally used for conventional bacterial identification. Other features of this technology include: ability to test samples with little or no preparation, low cost, linear dynamic range extending from one to one million bacterial cells per sample, portability (point-of-care testing), and applicability to automated high-throughput testing. Current diagnostic procedures based on bacterial cultures require 24-48 hours for completion.

"The LEXSAS™ technology has multiple commercial applications," remarked Dr. Rotman. "We are seeking strategic partners for developing these applications which include clinical diagnostics, blood products testing, food and beverage, veterinary, sterility assurance, and environmental monitoring."

BCR was founded by Boris Rotman, professor at Brown University Medical School. BCR's research work has been partially supported by the National Cancer Institute and by the Slater Center for Biomedical Technology in Rhode Island. Dr. Rotman pioneered the use of fluorogenic substrates to study enzymes and cellular membrane function. This work has been the basis of an increasing number of innovative technologies. Other BCR products include diagnostic tests for enumerating tumor cells in blood and bone marrow (US Patents No. 5,472,846 and 5,792,617).