“GFP-on-a-String” 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, “GFP-on-a-String” 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. For the past six months, the Rutgers Business School has been studying the economic potential of “GFP-on-a-String” in pre-clinical drug discovery. The Business School’s final report finds potential revenues to be in excess of $100 million per year for these three diseases, alone.

“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. “GFP-on-a-String” 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”. The unique, patented design for “GFP-on-a-String” generates more information about proteases and human diseases than any other system on the market. Stemming from 35-years of research on Green-Fluorescent Protein by Rutgers Professor William W. Ward, “GFP-on-a-String” is scheduled for a mid-2009 launch, pending adequate funding.

Brighter Ideas, Inc. is currently seeking investment of $1 million to complete the remaining pre-launch research and development.