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Mountain View, CA and Foster City, CA, October 16, 2001 / PRNewswire/
SurroMed, Inc. and Applied Biosystems Group (NYSE:ABI), an Applera
Corporation business, today announced that they have been awarded
a three-year, $8 million grant from the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) Advanced Technology Program (ATP).
The grant is for the development of SurroMed's nanoscale technology
and Applied Biosystems' multiplexing chemistry capabilities for
DNA analysis. SurroMed expects to receive approximately $3.7 million
of such funding, and Applied Biosystems expects to receive approximately
$4.3 million.
NIST is a non-regulatory federal agency within the U.S. Commerce
Department's Technology Administration that promotes measurement,
standards, and technology to enhance productivity, facilitate
trade and improve the quality of life. NIST-ATP awards are intended
to accelerate the development of innovative technologies for broad
national benefit through research and development partnerships
with the private sector. NIST-ATP awards are granted on the basis
of a rigorous competitive review that considers the scientific
and technical merit of each proposal and the potential benefits
to the U.S. economy. More information on the NIST-ATP award may
be obtained at www.atp.nist.gov.
"We are pleased to receive the NIST-ATP grant to develop
our novel technology with the chemistry development capabilities
of Applied Biosystems," said Gordon Ringold, Ph.D., Chairman
and CEO of SurroMed. "We are developing the technology for
use in our discovery programs, and the collaboration with Applied
Biosystems reflects our strategy to partner certain applications
with leading companies."
"Applied Biosystems is pleased to be a recipient of the
NIST-ATP award with SurroMed," said Michael Albin, Ph.D.,
Vice President, Science and Technology of Applied Biosystems.
"We look forward to the possibility of integrating Applied
Biosystems' strengths in chemistry with SurroMed's technology."
About SurroMed, Inc.
Headquartered in Mountain View, California, SurroMed uses its
integrated phenotyping and biological marker discovery platform
to better understand the root causes of disease and the factors
underlying patient-to-patient variations in disease presentation,
progression and response to therapy. Discoveries arising from
its research will enable improved, cost-efficient discovery and
development of therapeutic and diagnostic products. SurroMed's
phenotyping and biological marker discovery platform incorporates
advanced proprietary technologies for profiling and analysis of
hundreds of immune cell populations, proteins and low-molecular-weight
organic molecules (such as sugars, peptides or lipids) in small
volumes of blood and/or other biological samples, while maintaining
complete patient confidentiality. By capturing and analyzing enormous
amounts of clinical and biological information in a massively
parallel fashion to identify useful biological markers, SurroMed
plans to enable the precise diagnosis and effective treatment
of disease.
About the Applied Biosystems Group
Applera Corporation comprises two operating groups. The Applied
Biosystems Group develops and markets instrument-based systems,
reagents, software and contract services to the life science industry
and research community. Customers use these tools to analyze nucleic
acids (DNA and RNA) and proteins to make scientific discoveries,
leading to the development of new pharmaceuticals, and to conduct
standardized testing. Applied Biosystems is headquartered in Foster
City, CA. The Celera Genomics Group, an integrated source of genomic
and related medical information headquartered in Rockville, MD,
is evolving to become a next generation therapeutic discovery
business. Celera intends to leverage its industrialized approach
to biology to develop platforms for enabling these new discoveries
both for its own internal product development and for its customers,
including collaboration partners and subscribers. Celera Diagnostics
has been established as a joint venture between Applied Biosystems
and Celera Genomics. This new venture is focused on discovery,
development and commercialization of novel diagnostic tests. Information
about Applera Corporation, including reports and other information
filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission,
is available on the worldwide web at www.applera.com or by phoning
1-800-762-6923.
For Applied Biosystems: Certain statements in this press release
are forward-looking. These may be identified by the use of forward-looking
words or phrases such as "believe" or "expect"
among others. These forward-looking statements are based on Applera
Corporation's current expectations. The Private Securities Litigation
Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for such
forward-looking statements. In order to comply with the terms
of the safe harbor, Applera Corporation notes that a variety of
factors could cause actual results and experience to differ materially
from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in
such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties that
may affect the operations, performance, development, and results
of Applied Biosystems businesses include but are not limited to
(1) rapidly changing technology; (2) other factors that might
be described from time to time in Applera Corporation's filings
with the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Contacts:
SurroMed, Inc.
August J. Moretti
CFO and General Counsel
(650) 230-1564
email: [email protected]
Noonan/Russo Communications, Inc.
Ian McConnell, Ph.D
Senior Account Executive
(415) 677-4455 ext. 233
email: [email protected]
Applied Biosystems
Media
Lori Murray
(650) 638-6130
email: [email protected]
Investors
Peter Dworkin
(650) 554-2479
email: [email protected]
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