Austin, Texas – Asuragen, Inc. announced today that the Company received notice of a $6.8 million commercialization award to pursue Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) applications from the State of Texas through the Cancer Prevention and Research Institute of Texas (“CPRIT”). CPRIT was established to expedite innovation and commercialization in the area of cancer research and to enhance access to evidence-based prevention programs and services throughout the State. Acceptance of the award is subject to the completion of due diligence and contract negotiations.

“NGS has generated excitement in life sciences and healthcare by facilitating the rapid and cost effective

determination of large volumes of sequence information. Our development work at Asuragen has demonstrated that

it is possible to analyze and interpret cancer profiles from minimal tumor biopsies at a depth and sensitivity that may

address gaps in clinical cancer research and, ultimately, cancer patient management.” said Matt Winkler, Ph.D., the

founder and CEO of Asuragen, “The CPRIT grant provides significant support to further develop and ultimately

commercialize NGS-based tests in our CLIA laboratory.”

Most of the progress in NGS to date has focused on improvements in the underlying sequencing instrumentation and reagents with limited application of these technologies to clinically relevant sample types and integration within diagnostic workflows. More recently, however, NGS has demonstrated value in supporting clinical research and drug development, with the promise of improving cancer patient management. Asuragen’s NGS programs have targeted high value and clinically actionable mutation profiling, the discovery of cancer-linked genomic variants, and confirmatory testing with orthogonal NGS platforms. Proceeds from the CPRIT award will help enable Asuragen to expand its SuraSeq™ NGS product line, uncover both known and novel clinically relevant variants, and develop reliable confirmatory methods with associated clinical utility.

As part of the grant, Asuragen is collaborating with Drs. Heidi Erickson PhD, Ignacio Wistuba MD, Vassiliki

Papadimitrakopoulou MD, J. Jack Lee PhD, and Gordon Mills, MD, PhD at MD Anderson Cancer Center to apply Asuragen’s targeted NGS strategy to patient tumors in the context of pathway-based systems biology analyses, and match these data to targeted therapies and subsequent outcomes. Asuragen will test specimens from the BATTLE-2 Program, which is an innovative biomarker-integrated targeted therapy study and one of the first biopsy-driven prospective personalized medicine clinical trials. The BATTLE-2 Program will provide the opportunity to test the integration of routine pathology processing of NSCLC FNA specimens with the proposed NGS analysis in a clinically actionable trial environment that pairs cancer drugs to individualized patient biomarker profiles.

“While the early application of NGS has focused on a variety of model organisms and basic research

projects, it is widely anticipated that as the technologies become more robust and the time and cost for sequencing

are reduced, NGS will enable the ultimate realization of personalized medicine,” said Gordon Mills, co-director of the

Institute for Personalized Cancer Therapy at the University of Texas MD Anderson. “Our collaboration with Asuragen

in the BATTLE-2 Program will provide the opportunity to test the integration of routine pathology processing of nonsmall

cell lung cancer (NSCLC) FNA specimens with the proposed NGS analysis in a biomarker-driven trial. The

NGS products Asuragen is developing have the potential to reduce overall healthcare costs and enhance the care of

cancer patients.”

About CPRIT

Texas voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment in 2007 establishing CPRIT and authorizing the

State to issue $3 billion in bonds to fund groundbreaking cancer research and prevention programs and services in

Texas. CPRIT’s goal is to expedite innovation and commercialization in the area of cancer research and to enhance

access to evidence-based prevention programs and services throughout the State. CPRIT accepts applications and

awards grants for a wide variety of cancer-related research and for the delivery of cancer prevention programs and

services by public and private entities located in Texas. More information about CPRIT is available on its website,

www.cprit.state.tx.us.

About Asuragen

Asuragen is a fully integrated molecular diagnostic company and pharmaceutical services provider. Asuragen is

empowered with a high level of expertise from its Ambion heritage to provide science driven solutions for novel assay

development, CLIA and GLP testing services, which, combined with established cGMP manufacturing capabilities,

allow it to span the spectrum of discovery, production and commercialization for novel personalized tests and

companion diagnostics. The Company’s product portfolio consists of the first-ever validated microRNA diagnostic test

for pancreatic cancer, multiplex quantitative RNA-based assays, breakthrough solutions for the detection of the fragile

X mental retardation gene (FMR1), Signature® Oncology products for the qualitative detection of gene translocations

and mutations, an FDA-approved RNA tissue stabilization solution based upon RNAlater® technology, and industryleading

controls and standards engineered using its patented Armored RNA® technology. In addition, Asuragen

offers a full range of contract manufacturing services for high quality QSR compliant reagents from plasmid DNA to in

vitro synthesized RNA and complex assays for IVD cleared platforms. Asuragen is dedicated to developing new

technologies that will become cutting edge clinical products. More information is available at the Company’s website:

www.asuragen.com.