FOSTER CITY, Calif. & WOBURN, Mass.–Applied Biosystems (NYSE:ABI – News), an Applera Corporation business, today announced that it has signed a non-exclusive reseller agreement with BioTrove, Inc. to offer an end-to-end mass spectrometry-based drug discovery workflow intended to help pharmaceutical companies make drug discovery more efficient. This solution will combine BioTrove’s RapidFire™ Mass Spectrometry Sample Preparation System with industry-leading mass spectrometers from Applied Biosystems and its joint-venture partner, MDS Analytical Technologies, a business unit of MDS Inc. (NYSE:MDZ – News)(TSX:MDS – News).

Applied Biosystems Global Services and BioTrove’s support organization will team up to provide a single service plan, which BioTrove will offer to its customers for complete workflow support. The service plan will include application support, instrument maintenance, Applied Biosystems’ Smart Monitoring Service and other support services to ensure customer success using this integrated solution of innovative sample preparation technology and best-in-class mass spectrometry platforms for high throughput compound screening and in vitro ADME applications.

High-throughput screening of drug candidate compounds is a common pharmaceutical application that currently uses traditional technologies, such as florescent screening, that have often been perceived by the scientific community as too complex and demanding for mass spectrometry. With automated sample preparation at a rate of six to eight seconds per sample, compared with HPLC systems that can require several minutes per sample, BioTrove’s RapidFire system allows mass spectrometry to integrate seamlessly into existing high-throughput infrastructure, providing a simplified end-to-end solution that improves the current workflow familiar to drug discovery scientists.

BioTrove will offer complete high-throughput workflows comprised of its RapidFire system – which includes robotics and microfluidic handling for sample preparation and advanced software – combined with any of the following three Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies mass spectrometry instruments: the API 5000™ and API 4000™ triple quadrupole mass spectrometers and the 4000 QTRAP®, which is a hybrid triple quadrupole/linear ion trap mass spectrometer. The resulting integrated solutions combine best-in-class technologies from both organizations. BioTrove’s RapidFire system is the one of the fastest sample technologies on the market and is currently used by 11 of the world’s 15 largest pharmaceutical companies. The API 5000 and API 4000 platforms are industry-leading mass spectrometers that provide the high sensitivity and selectivity in analysis, necessary to obtain precise and reliable testing results from mass spectrometry, which is an advanced scientific technique used to analyze compounds based on their molecular composition. The 4000 QTRAP offers unmatched quantitative and qualitative analysis within a single system. It enables applications that cannot be done by any other instrument on the market.

“By bringing together two industry-leading technologies in a ready-to-use interface, BioTrove and Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies are enabling pharmaceutical researchers to use mass spectrometry for high-throughput drug discovery applications that were previously out of reach – while also simplifying workflow and conserving resources,” said Al Luderer, Ph.D., president and CEO, BioTrove. “This expanded partnership represents both companies’ commitment to providing best-in-class technology to our customers, with the shared mission of advancing drug discovery and life sciences research.”

This relationship is expected to expand the uses of Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies’ mass spectrometry instrument systems across a wider range of pharmaceutical research. BioTrove will also include Applied Biosystems’ service offerings for mass spectrometry as part of this total solution. The joint system solution is now available in North America.

“The complete solution of RapidFire and Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies instrument systems makes it easier for pharmaceutical companies to adopt high-throughput mass spectrometry technology into critical areas of drug discovery research that may not have had access to this technology,” said Tamara Bond, senior director of Applied Biosystems’ pharmaceutical business. “Pharmaceutical companies now have the assurance of industry-leading solutions for both sample preparation and compound detection in an integrated solution, complemented with the most comprehensive support and services organization in the life science industry.”

The Applied Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies joint venture has a more than 20-year history of innovation and is the market leader in mass spectrometry with more than 12,000 systems installed in laboratories worldwide. It provides complete workflows for the mass spectrometry market, including industry-leading platforms, software and new application workflows. Applied Biosystems Global Services assists in optimizing life scientists’ platform investments through a variety of services that support a broad range of customers, spanning from experts in mass spectrometry technology to first-time users.

This reseller agreement builds upon the strategic relationship that was established in 2007. Applied Biosystems and BioTrove entered into a licensing and collaboration agreement enabling Applied Biosystems to commercialize BioTrove’s OpenArray™ analysis platform for genotyping applications. This collaboration is expected to provide customers with the ability to purchase custom-built arrays of TaqMan® SNP Genotyping Assays pre-loaded on the BioTrove OpenArray™ technology. Applied Biosystem will sell and support the full platform for genotyping, integrating the ease-of-use, accuracy, and reproducibility of Applied Biosystems’ TaqMan SNP Genotyping Assays with BioTrove’s flexible high-density array format, enabling researchers to rapidly perform high-throughput genotyping studies at a lower total cost compared to alternative commercially available methods. BioTrove and Applied Biosystems expect that Applied Biosystems will begin to commercialize and service all components of this analysis platform during the second half of calendar 2008.

About BioTrove, Inc.

BioTrove, Inc. offers two innovative technology platforms: OpenArray™, which advances genomic research in a wide range of life science fields, including agriculture, disease research, and public health, and RapidFire™, which enables the acceleration of drug discovery and pipeline decisions. With 11 of the 15 largest biopharmaceutical companies based on global sales as clients, and partnerships with prestigious research and public health centers around the world, BioTrove’s products and services ensure that an industry committed to accuracy and speed can meet business goals.

The OpenArray™ Platform enables genomics researchers to generate SNP and real time qPCR data in the hundreds of thousands of data points per day, significantly increasing the number of samples analyzed while significantly decreasing the time and cost required. The flexible format and nanoliter scale of the OpenArray™ system allows for easy adjustment of sample and assay numbers, achieving economical, high-throughput genomics.

RapidFire™ Mass Spectrometry (RFMS) uses an innovative microfluidic technology to facilitate analysis at six to eight seconds per sample, eliminating the bottleneck created by traditional mass spectrometry throughput. RFMS is routinely used in many applications including the high-throughput screening of previously intractable drug targets, ADME assays and directed evolution studies.

About Applera Corporation and Applied Biosystems

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.

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,” “expect,” and “planned,” 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 the development and customer acceptance of new products; (2) sales dependent on customers’ spending policies; 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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