New DNA Analysis BeadChip Offers Optimal Combination of Content and Price for Association Studies

SAN DIEGO–Illumina, Inc. (NASDAQ:ILMN) today announced a new product for DNA Analysis: the HumanOmni1-Quad BeadChip. With over four million data points on a single BeadChip, this array includes up-to-date content for all major classes of genetic variation for the study of human disease. The BeadChip utilizes tagSNPs from all three phases of the International HapMap Project and offers premier coverage of known regions of copy number variation (CNV) and SNPs of known disease association. In addition, the HumanOmni1-Quad BeadChip is the first commercially-available product to offer content derived from the 1,000 Genomes Project. The format of the HumanOmni1-Quad BeadChip supports simultaneous genotyping of four samples which increases throughput and decreases the per sample price. First customer shipments of HumanOmni1-Quad BeadChips are expected in June 2009.

“For researchers performing whole-genome SNP and CNV studies, the HumanOmni1-Quad BeadChip provides the fastest and most cost-efficient tool for finding meaningful disease-associations,” said Jay Flatley, CEO and president of Illumina. “This array enables an unparalleled, comprehensive view of the genome and demonstrates Illumina’s commitment to providing the most relevant and valuable content to our customers so they can make new discoveries faster.”

The HumanOmni1-Quad BeadChip targets more than 11,000 regions of both common and rare copy number variation developed in collaboration with The Centre for Applied Genomics at the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in the United Kingdom and Harvard Medical School / Brigham and Women’s Hospital. BeadChip content also includes over 30,000 non-synonymous SNPs, indels and additional functional variants not found on other arrays. The HumanOmni1-Quad BeadChip delivers carefully selected markers that capture the highest amount of genomic variation and the best power for genome-wide association studies (GWAS) and CNV discovery and screening.

About the Infinium Genotyping Assay

Illumina remains the industry leader for development of cutting-edge genotyping technologies with a new generation of high-density, multi-sample, Infinium HD products that support integrated SNP genotyping and copy number variation (CNV) analysis. Infinium HD BeadChips deliver the industry’s best data quality with the highest call rates and reproducibility for genome-wide association studies, plus low noise for precise copy number measurements. Multi-sample Infinium HD BeadChips and rapid assay readout with the iScan System provides the fastest path to discovery and publication.

About Illumina

Illumina (www.illumina.com) is a leading developer, manufacturer, and marketer of next-generation life-science tools and integrated systems for the analysis of genetic variation and biological function. Using our proprietary technologies, we provide a comprehensive line of products and services that currently serve the sequencing, genotyping, and gene expression markets, and we expect to enter the market for molecular diagnostics. Our customers include leading genomic research centers, pharmaceutical companies, academic institutions, clinical research organizations, and biotechnology companies. Our tools provide researchers around the world with the performance, throughput, cost effectiveness, and flexibility necessary to perform the billions of genetic tests needed to extract valuable medical information from advances in genomics and proteomics. We believe this information will enable researchers to correlate genetic variation and biological function, which will enhance drug discovery and clinical research, allow diseases to be detected earlier, and permit better choices of drugs for individual patients.

“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: this release may contain forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Among the important factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in any forward-looking statements are Illumina’s ability (i) to develop and commercialize further our BeadArray™, VeraCode®, and Solexa® technologies and to deploy new sequencing, gene expression, and genotyping products and applications for our technology platforms, (ii) to manufacture robust instrumentation and reagents technology, together with other factors detailed in our filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission including our recent filings on Forms 10-K and 10-Q or in information disclosed in public conference calls, the date and time of which are released beforehand. We disclaim any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements beyond the date of this release.