Bluechiip Limited (ASX: BCT) – which has developed a ground-breaking wireless tracking solution for healthcare, security, defence and manufacturing industries – today announced that it has signed an evaluation agreement with Corning Incorporated (NYSE: GLW). The agreement provides Corning, through its Corning Life Sciences division, the opportunity to evaluate the bluechiip® tracking solution. The evaluation will be in collaboration with ATCC (historically known as the American Type Culture Collection) with which Bluechiip recently signed a similar agreement.

Corning is the world leader in specialty glass and ceramics. Corning creates and makes keystone components that enable high-technology systems for consumer electronics, mobile emissions control, telecommunications and life sciences. Corning’s success can be attributed to sustained investment in research and development, more than 150 years of materials science and process engineering knowledge, and a distinctive collaborative culture. Brett Schwarz, Managing Director and CEO of Bluechiip Limited, said, “We are very pleased that Corning has agreed to evaluate our unique tracking solution. Corning is the third significant US company which has chosen to conduct such trials. Such trials give us great confidence that we are getting very close to commercialization. Corning is a world leader in its field, and its willingness to evaluate our tracking solution is further valuable validation of our company’s IP.”

“We are pleased that Corning is interested in evaluating our technology. Our objective is to explore opportunities with Corning to bring our innovative bluechiip® tracking solution to market as a premium product within Corning’s wide range of product lines. We believe this represents a lucrative opportunity for both Bluechiip and Corning. Interest from companies such as Corning and ATCC demonstrate that Bluechiip is working with key commercial parties aiming to progress swiftly to commercial sales. Our aim is to conduct a proof-of-concept pilot in the coming months and launch product in early 2012, with the intention to take purchase orders shortly thereafter.”

About Bluechiip Limited:

Bluechiip Limited has invented and developed a wireless tracking solution for healthcare, security, defence and manufacturing industries which represents a generational change from current methods such as labels (hand-written and pre-printed), barcodes (linear and 2D) and microelectronic integrated circuit (IC)-based RFID (Radio Frequency Identification). The new technology is based on MEMS-based resonators within a tiny mechanical chip, which contains no electronics. The tracking tag, which comprises the chip and an antenna, can either be embedded or manufactured into a storage product, such as vials or bags. Easy identification, along with any associated information from the tag can be detected by a reader, which can also sense the temperature of the tagged items.

Traditional identification technologies – principally labels, barcodes and RFID tags – have significant limitations. Whereas a barcode requires a visible tag or line-of-sight optical scan, bluechiip® technology does not. Unlike labels, barcodes and RFID, the bluechiip® technology can sense the temperature of each item a tag is attached to, or embedded in. The bluechiip® technology has initial applications in the healthcare industry particularly those businesses which require cryogenic storage facilities (biobanks and biorepositories). bluechiip® offers the only technology that enables accurate and reliable tracking of products including stem cells, cord blood, and in-vitro fertilisation (IVF) specimens. It also has other healthcare applications in pathology, clinical trials and forensics. Several other key markets outside of healthcare include cold-chain logistics/supply chain, security/defence, industrial/manufacturing and aerospace/aviation. In March 2009, Time magazine highlighted biobanking as one of ‘10 Ideas Changing the World Right Now’. The growth of biobanks worldwide has been exponential; recent studies estimate that hundreds of millions of tissue samples are stored in US biobanks and greater than one billion are stored worldwide. In a recent report by Visiongain – Biobanking for Medical R&D: Technology and Market 2010-2025’ – the market for biobanking (sales of biobank resources or services) in 2009 was estimated to be worth $8 billion and is expected to reach $45 billion by 2025.

About Corning Incorporated

Corning is the world leader in specialty glass and ceramics. We create and make keystone components that enable high-technology systems for consumer electronics, mobile emissions control, telecommunications and life sciences. Corning succeeds through sustained investment in R&D, over 150 years of materials science and process engineering knowledge, and a distinctive collaborative culture.

Our products include glass substrates for LCD flat panel televisions, computer monitors and laptops; ceramic substrates and filters for mobile emission control systems; optical fiber, cable, hardware & equipment for telephone and internet communication networks; optical biosensors for drug discovery; and other advanced optics and specialty glass solutions for a number of industries including semiconductor, aerospace, defense, astronomy and metrology.