Applied Biosystems’ Software Development Community Helps Scientists Address Next-Generation Sequencing Bioinformatics Challenges

Formal agreements with Geospiza® and GenomeQuest enable access to bioinformatics tools and resources

FOSTER CITY, Calif. – February 7, 2008 – Applied Biosystems (NYSE:ABI), an Applera Corporation business, today announced that its Software Development Community has established relationships resulting in two formal agreements intended to help scientists address next-generation sequencing bioinformatics challenges.  Geospiza® and GenomeQuest will develop bioinformatics tools that are expected to advance data analysis and management for life scientists utilizing data generated by the SOLiD™ System, the life science industry’s highest throughput system for next-generation sequencing.

Geospiza, a leading provider of fully integrated data management infrastructure solutions for genetic analysis, has signed an agreement expanding its relationship with Applied Biosystems to include next-generation sequencing instrumentation.  Applied Biosystems also formed an agreement with GenomeQuest, which provides an integrated sequence information platform allowing researchers to search and analyze genomic sequence data as a hosted service or as a hardware appliance. 

The SOLiD System is capable of generating sequence data that exceeds 4 gigabases (GB), which is more than the approximately 3 billion bases of the human genome.  The solutions offered by Geospiza and GenomeQuest are expected to help address managing this vast amount of genomic data by providing complementary services, including the IT infrastructure to manage the data, as well as the ability to process the data and align it to a reference sequence. 

Applied Biosystems expects that its relationships with Geospiza and GenomeQuest will help drive innovation and speed the development of new tools that will enable researchers to find answers faster and more cost-effectively, thereby helping scientists to realize the full potential of next-generation genomic analysis.  Applied Biosystems has shared file formats, sample data sets and analysis pipeline information with Geospiza and GenomeQuest so that they may configure their products, services and capabilities to address customer challenges associated with generating, analyzing and managing research data in key applications for the SOLiD System. 

Geospiza Offers IT Infrastructure Solution

As life scientists expand their research capabilities by using the SOLiD System, Geospiza expects to support these customers by processing both CE and SOLiD data through a single data processing pipeline, which will enable them to integrate and visualize the two data sets from both technologies.  This integrated solution is expected to enable researchers to utilize both the SOLiD System for discovery applications and CE systems for validation, connecting the research continuum. 

This development is expected to benefit many organizations, including the University of Washington, which is a user of the FinchLab software and an early adopter of the SOLiD System.  Scientists in the university’s High Throughput Sequencing Solutions Laboratory recognize the challenges associated with the vast amount of data being generated from next-generation sequencing systems. 

“As a Geospiza FinchLab customer and a laboratory that has acquired a SOLiD System sequencer, any collaborative effort between Geospiza and Applied Biosystems to help laboratory directors meet the coming next-generation sequencer data management and analytics challenges would be a welcome relationship for the research community,” said Dr. Michael Dorschner, the director of the University of Washington’s High Throughput Sequencing Solutions Laboratory.

Geospiza plans to deepen the integration between its FinchLab Next Gen Edition software product and the SOLiD System to provide a comprehensive solution that includes data management systems to define experiments, and the ability to track data through production, and process genetic analysis platforms in a scaleable high capacity storage system. 

“By expanding our long-standing relationship with Applied Biosystems, we are answering the call for bioinformatics solutions to help accelerate research on next-generation genomics analysis platforms,” said Rob Arnold, President, Geospiza. “Laboratory directorsand end users should benefit equally from the more natural workflow as they switch between the software and the instrument for data generation, management and analysis. Our platform is specifically designed to scale with the lab as their needs grow.”

GenomeQuest to Provide Data Alignment and Analysis Solutions

“Our relationship with Applied Biosystems should ensure that SOLiD System customers will have a robust informatics platform that supports their needs, now and in the future,” said Ron Ranauro, CEO of GenomeQuest.  “The research community has clearly indicated that they need more than algorithms to adequately handle the immense volume of data generated by next-generation platforms.”

Applied Biosystems’ Software Development Community Helps Drive Innovation in Next-Generation Sequencing

Applied Biosystems established the Software Development Community in 2006 to encourage innovation in life science research software applications and to create a collaborative environment that provides a widely accessible pool of resources that will enable customers and independent service providers to develop and bring to market innovative new applications that allow the research community to find more answers, faster and more cost-effectively.  The Software Development Community represents Applied Biosystems’ commitment to fostering innovation in life science technologies for industry leading genetic analyzers, and real-time PCR sequence detection systems.  The company expanded the community in 2007 to directly address the industry wide challenges associated with analyzing and managing the vast amounts of research data generated by ultra-high-throughput technology.  Since its inception, hundreds of researchers, independent software vendors, SOLiD System customers and bioinformatics service providers have visited the Software Development Community site to investigate file formats, and download sample data sets and data analysis tools that have the potential to help them develop informatics tools for expanding the utility of the large volumes of genomic information generated by the SOLiD System.

“Through our Software Development Community, Applied Biosystems is providing life scientists and independent software developers the tools and resources necessary to develop software applications that help researchers manage the vast amount of data generated by the SOLiD System,” said Roger Canales, senior manager of Applied Biosystems’ SOLiD Software Development Community.  “Geospiza and GenomeQuest are leading the industry by providing researchers the ability to consistently and cost-effectively produce, analyze and deliver meaningful scientific results from their next-generation genomic analysis projects.”

Applied Biosystems is a global leader in the development and commercialization of instrument-based systems, consumables, software, and services for the life-science market and is the recognized market leader in the commercialization of DNA sequencing platforms. The SOLiD System, based on sequencing by oligonucleotide ligation and detection, is Applied Biosystems’ next-generation system for ultra high-throughput genomic analysis. Unlike polymerase sequencing approaches, the SOLiD System utilizes a proprietary technology called stepwise ligation, which generates high quality data for applications including, whole genome sequencing, chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP), microbial and eukaryotic resequencing, digital karyotyping, medical sequencing, genotyping, gene expression, and small RNA discovery, among others.  For more information about the SOLiD System or the Software Development Community please visit: http://solid.appliedbiosystems.com.

Applera Corporation consists of two operating groups. Applied Biosystems 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, such as testing required for food and pharmaceutical manufacturing. Applied Biosystems is headquartered in Foster City, CA, and reported sales of approximately $2.1 billion during fiscal 2007. The Celera Group is a diagnostics business delivering personalized disease management through a combination of products and services incorporating proprietary discoveries. Berkeley HeartLab, a subsidiary of Celera, offers services to predict cardiovascular disease risk and optimize patient management.  Celera also commercializes a wide range of molecular diagnostic products through its strategic alliance with Abbott and has licensed other relevant diagnostic technologies developed to provide personalized disease management in cancer and liver diseases.  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.  All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Applera does not undertake any duty to update this information unless required by law.

About Geospiza
Founded in 1997, Geospiza combines deep life science and IT expertise to deliver our clients highly-scalable, fully-integrated, regulatory compliant informatics platforms for scaling their laboratory workflow, scientific data management and analytics workflows. The company’s customers are primarily molecular diagnostic laboratories, biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, contract core labs, large research institutes and universities, involved in clinical DNA testing, manufacturing DNA based bio-therapeutics, delivering sequencing services to outside customers and basic life science research and discovery efforts. More information is available at http://www.geospiza.com.

Applied Biosystems Forward Looking Statements
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking. These may be identified by the use of forward-looking words or phrases such as "should, "planned," and "expect," among others. These forward-looking statements are based on Applera Corporation's current expectations. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for such forward-looking statements. In order to comply with the terms of the safe harbor, Applera Corporation notes that a variety of factors could cause actual results and experience to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements. These factors include but are not limited to: (1) rapidly changing technology and dependence on customer acceptance of the SOLiD System; (2) the risk of unanticipated difficulties associated with the further development of the SOLiD™ System; and (3) other factors that might be described from time to time in Applera Corporation's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Applera does not undertake any duty to update this information, including any forward-looking statements, unless required by law.

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©Copyright 2008. Applied Biosystems.  All rights reserved.  Applera, Applied Biosystems, and AB (Design) are registered trademarks and SOLiD is a trademark of Applera Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and/or certain other countries.