Item 1A. Risk Factors.

The more prominent risks and uncertainties inherent in our business are described below. However, additional risks and uncertainties may also impair our business operations. If any of the following risks actually occur, our business, financial condition or results of operations may suffer.

Risks Related to Our Business

We have a limited operating history and have incurred substantial losses and expect to incur future losses .

We are a development stage biotechnology company with a limited operating history and limited assets and capital. We have incurred losses each year since inception and had an accumulated deficit of $64,351,449 at December 31, 2011. We have generated minimal revenues by licensing our technology for certain crops to companies willing to share in our development costs. In addition, our technology may not be ready for commercialization for several years. We expect to continue to incur losses for the next several years because we anticipate that our expenditures on research and development and administrative activities will significantly exceed our revenues during that period. We cannot predict when, if ever, we will become profitable.

We will need additional capital to fund our operations until we are able to generate a profit.

Our operations to date have required significant cash expenditures. Our future capital requirements will depend on the results of our research and development activities, preclinical and clinical studies, and competitive and technological advances.

We will need to obtain more funding in the future through collaborations or other arrangements with research institutions and corporate partners, or public and private offerings of our securities, including debt or equity financing. We may not be able to obtain adequate funds for our operations from these sources when needed or on acceptable terms. Future collaborations or similar arrangements may require us to license valuable intellectual property to, or to share substantial economic benefits with, our collaborators. If we raise additional capital by issuing additional equity or securities convertible into equity, our stockholders may experience dilution and our share price may decline. Any debt financing may result in restrictions on our spending.

If we are unable to raise additional funds, we will need to do one or more of the following:

We believe that at the projected rate of spending we should have sufficient cash to maintain our present operations through August 2012. However, we have the ability to raise additional capital through our ATM facility, utilize our unused line of credit and, if necessary, delay certain costs.

We may be adversely affected by the current economic environment.

Our ability to obtain financing, invest in and grow our business, and meet our financial obligations depends on our operating and financial performance, which in turn is subject to numerous factors. In addition to factors specific to our business, prevailing economic conditions and financial, business and other factors beyond our control can also affect our business and ability to raise capital. We cannot anticipate all of the ways in which the current economic climate and financial market conditions could adversely impact our business.

Materials necessary to manufacture some of our compounds currently under development may not be available on commercially reasonable terms, or at all, which may delay our development and commercialization of these compounds.

Some of the materials necessary for the manufacture of our compounds under development may, from time to time, be available either in limited quantities, or from a limited number of manufacturers, or both. Our contract manufacturers need to obtain these materials for our clinical trials and, potentially, for commercial distribution when and if we obtain marketing approval for these compounds. Suppliers may not sell us these materials at the time we need them or on commercially reasonable terms. If we are unable to obtain the materials needed to conduct our clinical trials, product testing and potential regulatory approval could be delayed, adversely affecting our ability to develop the product candidates. Similarly, if we are unable to obtain critical manufacturing materials after regulatory approval has been obtained for a product candidate, the commercial launch of that product candidate could be delayed or there could be a shortage in supply, which could materially affect our ability to generate revenues from that product candidate. If suppliers increase the price of manufacturing materials, the price for one or more of our products may increase, which may make our products less competitive in the marketplace. If it becomes necessary to change suppliers for any of these materials or if any of our suppliers experience a shutdown or disruption at the facilities used to produce these materials, due to technical, regulatory or other reasons, it could harm our ability to manufacture our products.

We depend on a single principal technology and, if our technology is not commercially successful, we will have no alternative source of revenue .

Our primary business is the development and licensing of technology to identify, isolate, characterize and promote or silence genes which control the death of cells in humans and plants. Our future revenue and profitability critically depend upon our ability, or our licensees’ ability, to successfully develop apoptosis and senescence gene technology and later license or market such technology. We have conducted experiments on certain crops with favorable results and have conducted certain preliminary cell-line and animal experiments, which have provided us with data upon which we have designed additional research programs. However, we cannot give any assurance that our technology will be commercially successful or economically viable for any crops or human therapeutic applications.

In addition, no assurance can be given that adverse consequences might not result from the use of our technology such as the development of negative effects on humans or plants or reduced benefits in terms of crop yield or protection. Our failure to obtain market acceptance of our technology or the failure of our current or potential licensees to successfully commercialize such technology would have a material adverse effect on our business.

We outsource all of our research and development activities and, if we are unsuccessful in maintaining our alliances with these third parties, our research and development efforts may be delayed or curtailed.

We rely on third parties to perform all of our research and development activities. Our research and development efforts take place at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, where our technology was discovered, at other commercial research facilities and with our comme rcial partners. At this time, we do not have the internal capabilities to perform our own research and development activities. Accordingly, the failure of third party research partners to perform under agreements entered into with us, or our failure to renew important research agreements with these third parties, may delay or curtail our research and development efforts.

We have significant future capital needs and may be unable to raise capital when needed, which could force us to delay or reduce our research and development efforts.

As of December 31, 2011, we had a cash balance of $1,552,898 and a working capital deficit of $235,129. Using our availab le reserves as of December 31, 2011 and the net proceeds of the public offering on January 6, 2012, we believe that we can operate according to our current business plan through August 2012. However, we have the ability to raise additional capital through our ATM facility, utilize our unused line of credit and, if necessary, delay certain costs.

To date, we have generated minimal revenues and anticipate that our operating costs will exceed any revenues generated over the next several years. Therefore, we will be required to raise additional capital in the future in order to operate in accordance with our current business plan, and this funding may not be available on favorable terms, if at all. If we are unable to raise additional funds, we will need to do one or more of the following:

In addition, in connection with any funding, if we need to issue more equity securities than our certificate of incorporation currently authorizes, or more than 20% of the shares of our common stock outstanding, we may need stockholder approval. If stockholder approval is not obtained or if adequate funds are not available, we may be required to curtail operations significantly or to obtain funds through arrangements with collaborative partners or others that may require us to relinquish rights to certain of our technologies, product candidates, products or potential markets. Investors may experience dilution in their investment from future offerings of our common stock. For example, if we raise additional capital by issuing equity securities, such an issuance would reduce the percentage ownership of existing stockholders. In addition, assuming the exercise of all options and warrants outstanding and the conversion of the preferred stock into common stock, as of December 31, 2011, we had 151,258,135 shares of common stock authorized but unissued and unreserved, which may be issued from time to time by our board of directors. Furthermore, we may need to issue securities that have rights, preferences and privileges senior to our common stock. Failure to obtain financing on acceptable terms would have a material adverse effect on our liquidity.

Since our inception, we have financed all of our operations through equity and debt financings. Our future capital requirements depend on numerous factors, including:

Our business depends upon our patents and proprietary rights and the enforcement of these rights. Our failure to obtain and maintain patent protection may increase competition and reduce demand for our technology.

As a result of the substantial length of time and expense associated with developing products and bringing them to the marketplace in the biotechnology and agricultural industries, obtaining and maintaining patent and trade secret protection for technologies, products and processes is of vital importance. Our success will depend in part on several factors, including, without limitation:

As of December 31, 2011, we have been issued twenty-four (24) patents by the PTO and seventy-eight (78) patents from foreign countries . We have also filed numerous patent applications for our technology in the United States and in several foreign countries, which technology is vital to our primary business, as well as several continuations in part on these patent applications. Our success depends in part upon the grant of patents from our pending patent applications.

Although we believe that our technology is unique and that it will not violate or infringe upon the proprietary rights of any third party, we cannot assure you that these claims will not be made or if made, could be successfully defended against. If we do not obtain and maintain patent protection, we may face increased competition in the United States and internationally, which would have a material adverse effect on our business.

Since patent applications in the United States are maintained in secrecy until patents are issued, and since publication of discoveries in the scientific and patent literature tend to lag behind actual discoveries by several months, we cannot be certain that we were the first creator of the inventions covered by our pending patent applications or that we were the first to file patent applications for these inventions.

In addition, among other things, we cannot assure you that:

Our competitors may allege that we are infringing upon their intellectual property rights, forcing us to incur substantial costs and expenses in resulting litigation, the outcome of which would be uncertain.

Patent law is still evolving relative to the scope and enforceability of claims in the fields in which we operate. We are like most biotechnology companies in that our patent protection is highly uncertain and involves complex legal and technical questions for which legal principles are not yet firmly established. In addition, if issued, our patents may not contain claims sufficiently broad to protect us against third parties with similar technologies or products, or provide us with any competitive advantage.

The PTO and the courts have not established a consistent policy regarding the breadth of claims allowed in biotechnology patents. The allowance of broader claims may increase the incidence and cost of patent interference proceedings and the risk of infringement litigation. On the other hand, the allowance of narrower claims may limit the scope and value of our proprietary rights.

The laws of some foreign countries do not protect proprietary rights to the same extent as the laws of the United States, and many companies have encountered significant problems and costs in protecting their proprietary rights in these foreign countries.

We could become involved in infringement actions to enforce and/or protect our patents. Regardless of the outcome, patent litigation is expensive and time consuming and would distract our management from other activities. Some of our competitors may be able to sustain the costs of complex patent litigation more effectively than we could because they have substantially greater resources. Uncertainties resulting from the initiation and continuation of any patent litigation could limit our ability to continue our operations.

If our technology infringes the intellectual property of our competitors or other third parties, we may be required to pay license fees or damages.

If any relevant claims of third party patents that are adverse to us are upheld as valid and enforceable, we could be prevented from commercializing our technology or could be required to obtain licenses from the owners of such patents. We cannot assure you that such licenses would be available or, if available, would be on acceptable terms. Some licenses may be non-exclusive and, therefore, our competitors may have access to the same technology licensed to us. In addition, if any parties successfully claim that the creation or use of our technology infringes upon their intellectual property rights, we may be forced to pay damages, including treble damages.

Our security measures may not adequately protect our unpatented technology and, if we are unable to protect the confidentiality of our proprietary information and know-how, the value of our technology may be adversely affected.

Our success depends upon know-how, unpatentable trade secrets, and the skills, knowledge and experience of our scientific and technical personnel. As a result, all employees agreed to a confidentiality provision in their employment agreement that prohibited the disclosure of confidential information to anyone outside of our company, during the term of employment and for five (5) years thereafter. The employment agreements have since been terminated, but the period of confidentiality is still in effect. We also require all employees to disclose and assign to us the rights to their ideas, developments, discoveries and inventions. We also attempt to enter into similar agreements with our consultants, advisors and research collaborators. We cannot assure you that adequate protection for our trade secrets, know-how or other proprietary information against unauthorized use or disclosure will be available.

We occasionally provide information to research collaborators in academic institutions and request that the collaborators conduct certain tests. We cannot assure you that the academic institutions will not assert intellectual property rights in the results of the tests conducted by the research collaborators, or that the academic institutions will grant licenses under such intellectual property rights to us on acceptable terms, if at all. If the assertion of intellectual property rights by an academic institution is substantiated, and the academic institution does not grant intellectual property rights to us, these events could limit our ability to commercialize our technology.

As we evolve from a company primarily involved in the research and development of our technology into one that is also involved in the commercialization of our technology, we may have difficulty managing our growth and expanding our operations.

As our business grows, we may need to add employees and enhance our management, systems and procedures. We may need to successfully integrate our internal operations with the operations of our marketing partners, manufacturers, distributors and suppliers to produce and market commercially viable products. We may also need to manage additional relationships with various collaborative partners, suppliers and other organizations. Although we do not presently conduct research and development activities in-house, we may undertake those activities in the future. Expanding our business may place a significant burden on our management and operations. We may not be able to implement improvements to our management information and control systems in an efficient and timely manner and we may discover deficiencies in our existing systems and controls. Our failure to effectively respond to such changes may make it difficult for us to manage our growth and expand our operations.

We have no marketing or sales history and depend on third party marketing partners. Any failure of these parties to perform would delay or limit our commercialization efforts.

We have no history of marketing, distributing or selling biotechnology products, and we are relying on our ability to successfully establish marketing partners or other arrangements with third parties to market, distribute and sell a commercially viable product both here and abroad. Our business plan envisions creating strategic alliances to access needed commercialization and marketing expertise. We may not be able to attract qualified sub-licensees, distributors or marketing partners, and even if qualified, these marketing partners may not be able to successfully market agricultural products or human therapeutic applications developed with our technology. If our current or potential future marketing partners fail to provide adequate levels of sales, our commercialization efforts will be delayed or limited and we may not be able to generate revenue.

We will depend on joint ventures and strategic alliances to develop and market our technology and, if these arrangements are not successful, our technology may not be developed and the expenses to commercialize our technology will increase.

In its current state of development, our technology is not ready to be marketed to consumers. We intend to follow a multi-faceted commercialization strategy that involves the licensing of our technology to business partners for the purpose of further technological development, marketing and distribution. We have and are seeking business partners who will share the burden of our development costs while our technology is still being developed, and who will pay us royalties when they market and distribute products incorporating our technology upon commercialization. The establishment of joint ventures and strategic alliances may create future competitors, especially in certain regions abroad where we do not pursue patent protection. If we fail to establish beneficial business partners and strategic alliances, our growth will suffer and the continued development of our technology may be harmed.

Competition in the human therapeutic and agricultural biotechnology industries is intense and technology is changing rapidly. If our competitors market their technology faster than we do, we may not be able to generate revenues from the commercialization of our technology.

Many human therapeutic and agricultural biotechnology companies are engaged in research and development activities relating to apoptosis and senescence. The market for plant protection and yield enhancement products is intensely competitive, rapidly changing and undergoing consolidation. We may be unable to compete successfully against our current and future competitors, which may result in price reductions, reduced margins and the inability to achieve market acceptance for products containing our technology. Our competitors in the field of plant senescence gene technology are companies that develop and produce transgenic plants and include major international agricultural companies, specialized biotechnology companies, research and academic institutions and, potentially, our joint venture and strategic alliance partners. These companies include: Mendel Biotechnology, Inc.; Renessen LLC; Exelixis Plant Sciences, Inc.; and Syngenta International AG; among others. Some of our competitors that are involved in apoptosis research include: Celgene, Inc.; Takeda/Millennium; ONYX Pharmaceuticals, Inc.; Amgen Inc.; Centocor, Inc.; Novartis AG; and Genta Incorporated. Many of these competitors have substantially greater financial, marketing, sales, distribution and technical resources than us and have more experience in research and development, clinical trials, regulatory matters, manufacturing and marketing. We anticipate increased competition in the future as new companies enter the market and new technologies become available. Our technology may be rendered obsolete or uneconomical by technological advances or entirely different approaches developed by one or more of our competitors, which will prevent or limit our ability to generate revenues from the commercialization of our technology.

Our business is subject to various government regulations and, if we or our licensees are unable to obtain regulatory approval, we may not be able to continue our operations.

At present, the U.S. federal government regulation of biotechnology is divided among three agencies:

The FDA requires that transgenic plants meet the same standards for safety that are required for all other plants and foods in general. Except in the case of additives that significantly alter a food’s structure, the FDA does not require any additional standards or specific approval for genetically engineered foods, but expects transgenic plant developers to consult the FDA before introducing a new food into the marketplace.

Use of our technology, if developed for human therapeutic applications, is also subject to FDA regulation. The FDA must approve any drug or biologic product before it can be marketed in the United States. In addition, prior to being sold outside of the United States, any products resulting from the application of our human therapeutic technology must be approved by the regulatory agencies of foreign governments. Prior to filing a new drug application or biologics license application with the FDA, we would have to perform extensive clinical trials, and prior to beginning any clinical trial, we would need to perform extensive preclinical testing which could take several years and may require substantial expenditures.

We believe that our current agricultural activities, which to date have been confined to research and development efforts, do not require licensing or approval by any governmental regulatory agency. However, we are performing clinical trials in connection with our human therapeutic applications, which is subject to FDA approval. Additionally, federal, state and foreign regulations relating to crop protection products and human therapeutic applications developed through biotechnology are subject to public concerns and political circumstances, and, as a result, regulations have changed and may change substantially in the future. Accordingly, we may become subject to governmental regulations or approvals or become subject to licensing requirements in connection with our research and development efforts. We may also be required to obtain such licensing or approval from the governmental regulatory agencies described above, or from state agencies, prior to the commercialization of our genetically transformed plants and human therapeutic technology. In addition, our marketing partners who utilize our technology or sell products grown with our technology may be subject to government regulations. If unfavorable governmental regulations are imposed on our technology or if we fail to obtain licenses or approvals in a timely manner, we may not be able to continue our operations.

Preclinical studies of our human therapeutic applications may be unsuccessful, which could delay or prevent regulatory approval.

Preclinical studies may reveal that our human therapeutic technology is ineffective or harmful, and/or may be unsuccessful in demonstrating efficacy and safety of our human therapeutic technology, which would significantly limit the possibility of obtaining regulatory approval for any drug or biologic product manufactured with our technology. The FDA requires submission of extensive preclinical, clinical and manufacturing data to assess the efficacy and safety of potential products. Any delay in receiving approval for any applicable IND from the FDA would result in a delay in the commencement of the related clinical trial. Additionally, we could be required to perform additional preclinical studies prior to the FDA approving any applicable IND. Furthermore, the success of preliminary studies does not ensure commercial success, and later-stage clinical trials may fail to confirm the results of the preliminary studies.

Our success will depend on the success of our clinical trials of our human therapeutic applications.

It may take several years to complete the clinical trials of a product, and failure of one or more of our clinical trials can occur at any stage of testing. We believe that the development of our product candidate involves significant risks at each stage of testing. If clinical trial difficulties and failures arise, our product candidate may never be approved for sale or become commercially viable.

There are a number of difficulties and risks associated with clinical trials. These difficulties and risks may result in the failure to receive regulatory approval to sell our product candidate or the inability to commercialize our product candidate. The possibility exists that:

Clinical trials for our human therapeutic technology will be lengthy and expensive and their outcome is uncertain.

Before obtaining regulatory approval for the commercial sales of any product containing our technology, we must demonstrate through clinical testing that our technology and any product containing our technology is safe and effective for use in humans. Conducting clinical trials is a time-consuming, expensive and uncertain process and typically requires years to complete. In our industry, the results from preclinical studies and early clinical trials often are not predictive of results obtained in later-stage clinical trials. Some products and technologies that have shown promising results in preclinical studies or early clinical trials subsequently fail to establish sufficient safety and efficacy data necessary to obtain regulatory approval. At any time during clinical trials, we or the FDA might delay or halt any clinical trial for various reasons, including:

Any failure or substantial delay in successfully completing clinical trials and obtaining regulatory approval for our product candidates could severely harm our business.

If our clinical trials for our product candidates are delayed, we would be unable to commercialize our product candidates on a timely basis, which would materially harm our business.

Planned clinical trials may not begin on time or may need to be restructured after they have begun. Clinical trials can be delayed for a variety of reasons, including delays related to:

We believe that our product candidate has significant milestones to reach, including the successful completion of clinical trials, before commercialization. If we have significant delays in or termination of clinical trials, our financial results and the commercial prospects for our product candidates or any other products that we may develop will be adversely impacted. In addition, our product development costs would increase and our ability to generate revenue could be impaired.

Any inability to license from third parties their proprietary technologies or processes which we use in connection with the development of our technology may impair our business.

Other companies, universities and research institutions have or may obtain patents that could limit our ability to use our technology in a product candidate or impair our competitive position. As a result, we would have to obtain licenses from other parties before we could continue using our technology in a product candidate. Any necessary licenses may not be available on commercially acceptable terms, if at all. If we do not obtain required licenses, we may not be able to develop our technology into a product candidate or we may encounter significant delays in development while we redesign methods that are found to infringe on the patents held by others.

Even if we receive regulatory approval, consumers may not accept products containing our technology, which will prevent us from being profitable since we have no other source of revenue.

We cannot guarantee that consumers will accept products containing our technology. Recently, there has been consumer concern and consumer advocate activism with respect to genetically-engineered agricultural consumer products. The adverse consequences from heightened consumer concern in this regard could affect the markets for agricultural products developed with our technology and could also result in increased government regulation in response to that concern. If the public or potential customers perceive our technology to be genetic modification or genetic engineering, agricultural products grown with our technology may not gain market acceptance.

We face potential product liability exposure far in excess of our limited insurance coverage.

We may be held liable if any product we or our collaborators develop causes injury or is found otherwise unsuitable during product testing, manufacturing, marketing or sale. Regardless of merit or eventual outcome, product liability claims could result in decreased demand for our product candidates, injury to our reputation, withdrawal of patients from our clinical trials, substantial monetary awards to trial participants and the inability to commercialize any products that we may develop. These claims might be made directly by consumers, health care providers, pharmaceutical companies or others selling or testing our products. We have obtained limited product liability insurance coverage for our clinical trials; however, our insurance may not reimburse us or may not be sufficient to reimburse us for expenses or losses we may suffer. Moreover, if insurance coverage becomes more expensive, we may not be able to maintain insurance coverage at a reasonable cost or in sufficient amounts to protect us against losses due to liability. If we obtain marketing approval for any of our product candidates, we intend to expand our insurance coverage to include the sale of commercial products, but we may be unable to obtain commercially reasonable product liability insurance for any products approved for marketing. On occasion, juries have awarded large judgments in class action lawsuits for claims based on drugs that had unanticipated side effects. In addition, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, in general, have been subject to significant medical malpractice litigation. A successful product liability claim or series of claims brought against us could harm our reputation and business and would decrease our cash reserves.

We depend on our key personnel and, if we are not able to attract and retain qualified scientific and business personnel, we may not be able to grow our business or develop and commercialize our technology.

We are highly dependent on our scientific advisors, consultants and third-party research partners. Our success will also depend in part on the continued service of our key employees and our ability to identify, hire and retain additional qualified personnel in an intensely competitive market. Although we have a research agreement with Dr. John Thompson, this agreement may be terminated upon short or no notice. Additionally, we do not have employment agreements with our key employees. We do not maintain key person life insurance on any member of management. The failure to attract and retain key personnel could limit our growth and hinder our research and development efforts.

Certain provisions of our charter, by-laws, Delaware law and stock plans could make a takeover difficult.

Certain provisions of our certificate of incorporation and by-laws could make it more difficult for a third party to acquire control of us, even if the change in control would be beneficial to stockholders. Our certificate of incorporation authorizes our board of directors to issue, without stockholder approval, except as may be required by the rules of the NYSE Amex, 5,000,000 shares of preferred stock with voting, conversion and other rights and preferences that could adversely affect the voting power or other rights of the holders of our common stock.

In addition, we are subject to the Business Combination Act of the Delaware General Corporation Law which, subject to certain exceptions, restricts certain transactions and business combinations between a corporation and a stockholder owning 15% or more of the corporation’s outstanding voting stock for a period of three years from the date such stockholder becomes a 15% owner. These provisions may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change of control of us without action by our stockholders and, therefore, could adversely affect the value of our common stock.

Furthermore, in the event of our merger or consolidation with or into another corporation, or the sale of all or substantially all of our assets in which the successor corporation does not assume our outstanding equity awards or issue equivalent equity awards, our current equity plans require the accelerated vesting of such outstanding equity awards.

Risks Related to Our Common Stock

We currently do not meet the NYSE Amex continued listing standards. If our common stock is delisted from the NYSE Amex, we may not be able to list on any other stock exchange, and our common stock may be subject to the “penny stock” regulations which may affect the ability of our stockholders to sell their shares.

The NYSE Amex requires us to meet minimum financial requirements in order to maintain our listing. Currently, we do not meet the $6,000,000 minimum net worth continued listing requirement of the NYSE Amex Exchange and have received a notice of noncompliance from the NYSE Amex Exchange. We submitted a plan of compliance on November 17, 2011 to the NYSE Amex Exchange discussing how we intend to regain compliance with the continued listing requirements. The NYSE Amex Exchange has accepted our plan and granted us an extension until July 20, 2012 to regain compliance with the NYSE Amex’s continuing listing standards, however, if we are unable to meet the plan, it is possible that we will be delisted. If we are delisted from the NYSE Amex, our common stock likely will become a “penny stock.” In general, regulations of the SEC define a “penny stock” to be an equity security that is not listed on a national securities exchange and that has a market price of less than $5.00 per share or with an exercise price of less than $5.00 per share, subject to certain exceptions. If our common stock becomes a penny stock, additional sales practice requirements would be imposed on broker-dealers that sell such securities to persons other than certain qualified investors. For transactions involving a penny stock, unless exempt, a broker-dealer must make a special suitability determination for the purchaser and receive the purchaser’s written consent to the transaction prior to the sale. In addition, the rules on penny stocks require delivery, prior to and after any penny stock transaction, of disclosures required by the SEC.

If our stock is not accepted for listing on the NYSE Amex, we will make every possible effort to have it listed on the Over the Counter Bulletin Board, or the OTC Bulletin Board. If our common stock was to be traded on the OTC Bulletin Board, the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, and related SEC rules would impose additional sales practice requirements on broker-dealers that sell our securities. These rules may adversely affect the ability of stockholders to sell our common stock and otherwise negatively affect the liquidity, trading market and price of our common stock.

We believe that the listing of our common stock on a recognized national trading market, such as the NYSE Amex, is an important part of our business and strategy. Such a listing helps our stockholders by providing a readily available trading market with current quotations. Without that, stockholders may have a difficult time getting a quote for the sale or purchase of our stock, the sale or purchase of our stock would likely be made more difficult and the trading volume and liquidity of our stock would likely decline. The absence of such a listing may adversely affect the acceptance of our common stock as currency or the value accorded it by other parties. In that regard, the absence of a listing on a recognized national trading market will also affect our ability to benefit from the use of our operations and expansion plans, including for use in licensing agreements, joint ventures, the development of strategic relationships and acquisitions, which are critical to our business and strategy and none of which is currently the subject of any agreement, arrangement or understanding, with respect to any future financing or strategic relationship we may undertake. A delisting from the NYSE Amex could result in negative publicity and could negatively impact our ability to raise capital in the future.

Our management and other affiliates have significant control of our common stock and could significantly influence our actions in a manner that conflicts with our interests and the interests of other stockholders.

As of December 31, 2011, our executive officers and directors together beneficially own approximately 32.7% of the outstanding shares of our common stock, assuming the conversion of preferred stock and exercise of options and warrants which are currently exercisable or will become exercisable within 60 days of December 31, 2011, held by these stockholders. As a result, these stockholders, acting together, will be able to exercise significant influence over matters requiring approval by our stockholders, including the election of directors, and may not always act in the best interests of other stockholders. Such a concentration of ownership may have the effect of delaying or preventing a change in control of us, including transactions in which our stockholders might otherwise receive a premium for their shares over then-current market prices.

A significant portion of our total outstanding shares of common stock may be sold in the market in the near future, which could cause the market price of our common stock to drop significantly.

As of December 31, 2011, we had 80,864,443 shares of our common stock issued and outstanding and 4,845 shares of convertible preferred stock outstanding which can convert into 17,944,444 shares of common stock. Approximately 34,164,431 shares of such shares are registered pursuant to registration statements on Form S-3 and 64,644,456 of which are either eligible to be sold under SEC Rule 144 or are in the public float. In addition, we have registered 35,890,007 shares of our common stock underlying warrants previously issued on Form S-3 registration statements and we registered 23,005,003 shares of our common stock underlying options granted or to be granted under our stock option plan. Consequently, sales of substantial amounts of our common stock in the public market, or the perception that such sales could occur, may have a material adverse effect on our stock price.

Our common stock has a limited trading market, which could limit your ability to resell your shares of common stock at or above your purchase price.

Our common stock is quoted on the NYSE Amex and currently has a limited trading market. The NYSE Amex requires us to meet minimum financial requirements in order to maintain our listing. Currently, we do not meet the continued listing requirements of the NYSE Amex. If we do not regain compliance with the continued listing standards, we could be delisted. We cannot assure you that an active trading market will develop or, if developed, will be maintained. As a result, our stockholders may find it difficult to dispose of shares of our common stock and, as a result, may suffer a loss of all or a substantial portion of their investment.

The market price of our common stock may fluctuate and may drop below the price you paid.

We cannot assure you that you will be able to resell the shares of our common stock at or above your purchase price. The market price of our common stock may fluctuate significantly in response to a number of factors, some of which are beyond our control. These factors include: