INDIANAPOLIS and MONTREAL — Roche announced today the U.S. launch of the latest addition to the company’s real-time PCR portfolio of LightCycler® instruments for use in research, the LightCycler Nano real-time PCR system. Roche Applied Science made the announcement in conjunction with the start of the 61st annual meeting of the American Society of Human Genetics in Montreal.

The new LightCycler Nano instrument shares the state-of-the-art technology of the LightCycler portfolio, producing high quality data in qPCR, genotyping, and high resolution melting on a small platform. The system uses innovative optics and thermal control to provide an extremely low variation of well-to-well performance.

The benchtop LightCycler Nano features a 32-well format and easy-to-use software that is compatible with Macintosh® and Windows®-PC operating systems. Complementing Roche’s LightCycler 480 and LightCycler 1536 real-time PCR systems, it offers a convenient solution for labs currently sharing time on another lab’s real-time PCR instrument.

“Many research labs use 96-well instruments, but the average number of samples per run is often below the capacity of the instruments,” said Brigitte Fernandes-McAlear, vice president of marketing at Roche Diagnostics Corporation. “This compact platform should satisfy the needs of many PCR researchers by fitting well into their work environment while delivering excellent results.”

Roche expects to begin accepting orders for LightCycler Nano instruments in early November.

About Roche

Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Roche is a leader in research-focused healthcare with combined strengths in pharmaceuticals and diagnostics. Roche is the world’s largest biotech company with truly differentiated medicines in oncology, virology, inflammation, metabolism and CNS. Roche is also the world leader in in-vitro diagnostics, tissue-based cancer diagnostics and a pioneer in diabetes management. Roche’s personalized healthcare strategy aims at providing medicines and diagnostic tools that enable tangible improvements in the health, quality of life and survival of patients. In 2010, Roche had over 80,000 employees worldwide and invested over 9 billion Swiss francs in R&D. The Group posted sales of 47.5 billion Swiss francs. Genentech, United States, is a wholly owned member of the Roche Group. Roche has a majority stake in Chugai Pharmaceutical, Japan. For more information: www.roche.com or www.roche-diagnostics.us.

LightCycler technology is licensed from Idaho Technology Inc. LIGHTCYCLER is a trademark of Roche. All trademarks mentioned in this release are protected by law.