Applied Biosystems Annnounces Major Expansion of Its TaqMan Gene Expression Assays Product Line for Real-Time PCR.

FOSTER CITY, Calif. -- More Than 350,000 New Pre-designed Probe and Primer Sets Now Available for Quantitative Real Time PCR measurement of Human, Mouse, and Rat Genes

Applied Biosystems (NYSE:ABI), an Applera Corporation business, today announced a major expansion of its TaqMan(R) Gene Expression Assays. More than 350,000 pre-designed probe and primer sets have been added to the current offering of more than 40,000 off-the-shelf assays for quantitative gene expression studies on human, mouse, and rat genes.

Assays are now available for nearly all exon-exon junctions of human, mouse, and rat gene transcripts. This offering gives researchers the flexibility to select an assay designed within a specific location of a gene transcript, which is particularly important for applications such as RNA interference (RNAi), validation of microarray hits, and detection of splice variants.

The TaqMan(R) Gene Expression Assays, formerly known as Assays-on-Demand(TM) products, eliminate the labor, expense, and bioinformatics expertise previously necessary for generating high-quality quantitative gene expression data.

The assays are designed for use on Applied Biosystems Real-Time PCR Systems and are part of the life science industry's most comprehensive and integrated product lines for gene expression analysis. Other products include the Applied Biosystems Expression Array System, TaqMan(R) Low Density Array (formerly known as the 7900HT Micro Fluidic Card), and the Celera Discovery System(TM) (CDS) online platform. The integration of these products makes the transition from global expression profiling on microarrays to screening focused sets of candidate genes more efficient and productive.

"Quantitative real-time PCR using TaqMan(R) chemistry has been established as the most sensitive and quantitative technology for gene expression analysis," said Michael W. Hunkapiller, Ph.D., President of Applied Biosystems. "This comprehensive set of Pre-designed TaqMan(R) Gene Expression Assays enable researchers to access these benefits much earlier in the target validation pipeline, yielding higher quality, and less ambiguous results and eliminating poor targets earlier in the process."

"The new assays were designed over all viable exon junctions of transcripts associated with human, mouse, and rat genes, which may be especially important for researchers wanting to distinguish between biologically relevant splice variants of genes," said Andrew J. Last, Ph.D., Vice President and General Manager, Applied Biosystems Gene Expression, Core PCR, and DNA Synthesis. "Additionally, researchers conducting RNAi experiments now have a highly efficient and accurate method to confirm levels of gene knock-out or knock-down, including access to specific transcript locations needed for detection."

TaqMan(R) Gene Expression Assays are available either online at www.myscience.appliedbiosystems.com, or at https://panther.appliedbiosystems.com/Catalog/. The Web interface offers a choice of powerful search options that enable researchers to quickly identify assays relevant to their research. Search options include key words (such as gene symbols), public accession numbers, classification by molecular function, and a batch identification function that allows scientists to import a file of many targets to search simultaneously. Customers are provided with Celera, NCBI, and reagent identification numbers as well as other pertinent biological information. Interested parties may browse the online catalog free of charge. For more information visit www.allgenes.com. Delivery time for domestic orders of the pre-designed assays is estimated at five to seven days, compared to two to three days for the off-the-shelf assays.

About Applera Corporation and Applied Biosystems

Applera Corporation consists of two operating groups. The Applied Biosystems Group serves the life science industry and research community by developing and marketing instrument-based systems, consumables, software, and services. Customers use these tools to analyze nucleic acids (DNA and RNA), small molecules, and proteins to make scientific discoveries, develop new pharmaceuticals, and conduct standardized testing. Applied Biosystems is headquartered in Foster City, CA, and reported sales of $1.7 billion during fiscal 2003. The Celera Genomics Group (NYSE:CRA), located in Rockville, MD, and South San Francisco, CA, is engaged principally in integrating advanced technologies to discover and develop new therapeutics. Celera intends to leverage its proteomic, bioinformatic, and genomic capabilities to identify and validate drug targets, and to discover and develop new therapeutics. Its Celera Discovery System(TM) online platform, marketed exclusively by Applied Biosystems, is an integrated source of information based on the human genome and other biological and medical sources. Celera Diagnostics, a 50/50 joint venture between Applied Biosystems and Celera Genomics, is focused on discovery, development, and commercialization of novel diagnostic products. Information about Applera Corporation, including reports and other information filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, is available at http://www.applera.com, or by telephoning 800-762-6923. Information about Applied Biosystems is available at http://www.appliedbiosystems.com/.

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," "expect," "plans," and "should" 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. These factors include but are not limited to (1) rapidly changing technology and dependence on the development of new products; (2) sales dependent on customers' capital spending policies and government-sponsored research; (3) Applied Biosystems' dependence on the operation of computer hardware, software, and Internet applications and related technology; (4) unproven use of genomics information to develop or commercialize products; and (5) other factors that might be described from time to time in Applera Corporation's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information in this press release is as of the date of the release, and Applera does not undertake any duty to update this information, including any forward-looking statements, unless required by law.

Applied Biosystems is a registered trademark and Applera, Assays-on-Demand, Celera, Celera Diagnostics, Celera Discovery System, and Celera Genomics are trademarks of Applera Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and/or certain other countries.

For Research Use Only. Not for use in diagnostic procedures.

TaqMan is a registered trademark of Roche Molecular Systems, Inc.