Applied Biosystems Announces Collaboration with Eagle Research and Development

Business Wire, Oct 31, 2006

Co-Development Work to Begin on Portable, Single Molecule Detection Device Capable of Rapid and Inexpensive Protein and DNA Analysis

FOSTER CITY, Calif. -- Applied Biosystems Group (NYSE:ABI), an Applera Corporation business, today announced that it has signed an agreement with Eagle Research and Development, LLC to collaborate on further developing a single molecule detection device invented by Eagle. As part of the agreement, Applied Biosystems has received an exclusive two-year option to license the technology. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Eagle's patented technology, currently in prototype stage, identifies and quantifies molecules based on their unique electronic charge signatures. Applied Biosystems believes the technology could have significant implications for advancing personalized medicine based on its potential for faster, more efficient and less expensive protein and nucleic acid identification, protein-protein and protein/small molecule interaction measurements, and DNA sequencing.

Eagle received a two-year research grant from the National Human Genome Research Institute in 2002 to demonstrate a unique DNA detection method using a nanopore-based device. Nanopores are extremely small openings in a thin membrane or silicon chip. When an electronic voltage is applied, molecules pass through these pores enabling each unique molecular component to be identified and counted.

The miniature silicon device constructed by Eagle consists of an array of nanopores, with each nanopore containing embedded semiconductors or field-effect transistors (FETs). As single molecules are driven through a nanopore by a voltage differential, the three-dimensional charge profile of a molecule is measured by the FETs, enabling each molecule in the sample to be uniquely identified and precisely quantified.

"This technology offers the prospect to eventually correlate DNA and its expressed proteins with specific disease states using an inexpensive, disposable and portable device, which could be a boon for clinical research," said Jon Sauer, founder of Eagle Research and Development. "For example, the device has the potential to enable development of exquisitely targeted treatments using sequencing data both from a patient and from the disease-causing pathogen."

The Eagle device is unique because it measures a molecule's three-dimensional electronic charge profile directly, as opposed to measuring electronic current or conductance. Further, it does so without the use of fluorescent or other labels, thermal cycling or optics. Compared to other nanopore-based technologies for measuring molecules using electronic signals, the Eagle approach achieves a 1,000-fold higher sensitivity as a result of the FETs embedded in the nanopores.

"A rapid, cost-effective and portable molecular detection device has the potential to advance a wide-range of important life science applications," said Dennis Gilbert, chief scientific officer of Applied Biosystems. "While it is still in early stages, we are excited about exploring this technology's ability to achieve these goals by identifying molecules directly by electronic charge signatures, a capability which could also represent the future of label-free molecule detection."

Applied Biosystems intends to focus initial development support and feasibility testing for applications in protein identification and detection of protein-binding events. Provided the ability to electronically profile the individual four nucleotides in DNA is further developed, Applied Biosystems believes the Eagle technology could potentially be the first to enable the identification and measurement of both DNA and proteins in a single sample at the same time.

Nanopore technology is one of several next-generation life science research platforms in which Applied Biosystems is investing. In July 2006, Applied Biosystems acquired Agencourt Personal Genomics for its sequencing by stepwise ligation technology. In December 2005, Applied Biosystems made an investment in VisiGen Biotechnologies for its real-time single-molecule sequencing technology. Applied Biosystems also develops and evaluates fundamentally new technologies internally through its Advanced Research and Technology Group.

About Eagle Research and Development

Eagle Research and Development, LLC is a privately owned company (founded in 1994) based in Boulder, Colorado, which was started for the purpose of researching and applying advanced semiconductor fabrication technology to new applications. Eagle R&D is developing a biomolecule analyzer with such a significant increase in performance over existing methods that it will profoundly change the way physicians and scientists in life sciences do their work. Based upon leading edge semiconductor technology, the Semiconductor Nanopore Sensor (SeNSe) addresses a broad range of applications including DNA analysis, protein analysis, and viral identification.

About Applera Corporation and Applied Biosystems

Applera Corporation consists of two operating groups. The Applied Biosystems Group serves the life science industry and research community by developing and marketing instrument-based systems, consumables, software, and services. Customers use these tools to analyze nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), small molecules, and proteins to make scientific discoveries and develop new pharmaceuticals. Applied Biosystems' products also serve the needs of some markets outside of life science research, which we refer to as "applied markets," such as the fields of: human identity testing (forensic and paternity testing); biosecurity, which refers to products needed in response to the threat of biological terrorism and other malicious, accidental, and natural biological dangers; and quality and safety testing, for example in food and the environment. Applied Biosystems is headquartered in Foster City, CA, and reported sales of over $1.9 billion during fiscal 2006. The Celera Genomics Group is primarily a molecular diagnostics business that is using proprietary genomics and proteomics discovery platforms to identify and validate novel diagnostic markers, and is developing diagnostic products based on these markers. Celera Genomics maintains a strategic alliance with Abbott Laboratories for the development and commercialization of molecular, or nucleic acid-based, diagnostic products, and it is also developing new diagnostic products outside of this alliance. Through its genomics and proteomics research efforts, Celera Genomics is also discovering and validating therapeutic targets, and it is seeking to develop therapeutic products based on these discovered targets through strategic partnerships. Information about Applera Corporation, including reports and other information filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, is available at http://www.applera.com, or by telephoning 800.762.6923. Information about Applied Biosystems is available at http://www.appliedbiosystems.com/.>