Custom Array Developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory is Recognized for Its Contribution to Air Quality Testing

SANTA CLARA, Calif.–Affymetrix Inc. (Nasdaq:AFFX) announced today that the PhyloChip, a custom Affymetrix microarray developed by Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, won the bronze prize in the 2008 Wall Street Journal Technology Innovation Awards. The PhyloChip helps researchers identify dangerous pathogens before they can affect humans. The PhyloChip was the only biotech company in the top three to be recognized. There were 700 total entrants.

The custom array PhyloChip was developed to simultaneously identify and quantify up to 8,900 distinctive environmental and pathogenic microbial species in a single experiment, in less than nine hours. The PhyloChip is unprecedented in its ability to accurately test any clinical or environmental sample without the need for culturing. The chip has been used by the Department of Homeland Security for bioterror detection, the Japanese Defence Force, the U.S. Department of Energy in bioremediation of contaminated soils to detoxify the earth and the State of California Water Quality Board for monitoring contaminated beaches.

“The speed with which we can now carry out our research far outpaces serial cloning. We offer the potential for numerous applications, including human health assessment, water quality and environmental cleanup, enabling complete evaluation of numerous samples on a daily basis,” said Gary Andersen, Ph.D., project leader at Berkeley Lab. “Affymetrix has allowed us to replace expensive and time-consuming cloning and sequencing with a method that will offer a competitive advantage to anyone wanting to detect bacteria in soil, air, water or clinical samples.”

“We are proud of the team at Berkeley Lab for creating a custom array that enables researchers to analyze more environmental and pathogenic microbial species than traditional techniques,” said Kevin King, president of Affymetrix. “To date Affymetrix has enabled the design of more than 700 custom arrays, and this recognition by the Wall Street Journal confirms that we continue to enable scientists to innovate where there is no commercial array available on the market.”

In July the PhyloChip won an R&D Magazine award for technology advancement. It was recognized for its ability to quickly, comprehensively and accurately identify species within microbial samples from any environmental source, without any culturing required. The PhyloChip is not yet commercially available. For more information please contact Dr. Andersen at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

This is the second time Affymetrix has been recognized by a national publication for innovation this year. In March it was named one of the world’s 50 most innovative companies by Fast Company magazine.