Applied Biosystems Opens New Application Support Center.

Facility to offer best-in-class life science application support, development and training

FOSTER CITY, Calif. -- Applied Biosystems (NYSE:ABI), an Applera Corporation business, today announced the opening of an Application Support Center located at its research and development headquarters in Foster City, Calif. This new facility is intended to drive closer relationships between Applied Biosystems scientists and its life-science customers through the creation of best-in-class applications support. The 10,000 square-foot facility will showcase integrated instrumentation and software solutions spanning a broad range of life-science applications.

Researchers and customers visiting the Application Support Center will have the opportunity to interact with Applied Biosystems' scientists, applications specialists, product development personnel, and research and development teams to identify workflow improvements, develop new applications, and refine existing applications based upon their specific laboratory requirements. The center will also help Applied Biosystems' customers to maximize their investments in the company's technologies and applications through a variety of training programs.

The new Applications Support Center houses a broad portfolio of Applied Biosystems' instrumentation and supporting software solutions, including technologies that address DNA sequencing, fragment analysis, human identification, and real-time PCR applications. The center includes a fully staffed working laboratory, and three classrooms that are designed to host a variety of classes as well as state-of-the-art, interactive computer-based training.

An example of a featured technology at the center is the SOLiD[TM] System, Applied Biosystems' next-generation system for ultra high-throughput DNA analysis. The promise of next-generation sequencing technology is to broaden the applications of genomic information in medical research and health care, reduce the cost of DNA sequencing without sacrificing quality, and enable discoveries that may revolutionize the practice of medicine.

Dr. Ron Hart, Ph.D., a professor of cell biology and neuroscience at the Stem Cell Research Center at Rutgers University, is an expert in microarray technologies in models of trauma to the central nervous system. He uses Applied Biosystems' standardized reagents and equipment, including high-throughput quantitative PCR (polymerase chain reaction), for research related to understanding gene expression changes. Dr. Hart anticipates applying next-generation sequencing applications to further his work in this emerging area of study.

"I believe Applied Biosystems' Application Support Center will help facilitate and accelerate the pace of spinal cord injury and neurotrauma research," said Dr. Hart. "One of the tools that will be incredibly important in the future is next-generation sequencing technology, including the SOLiD System technology. To get a stem cell to a point where we can transplant it into a human being, we're eventually going to have to sequence that genome every time for every cell line. The availability of a reliable, accurate, and inexpensive high-throughput deep sequencing technique is going to be absolutely essential for biological materials that may eventually go into humans."

Another featured application at the new center is gene expression. Dr. Leendert M.J. Looijenga, Ph.D., a medical biologist and professor of translational patho-oncology at the Josephine Nefkens Institute in The Netherlands, has used Applied Biosystems' high throughput expression profiling technologies to identify specific microRNAs in the investigation of normal and abnormal germ cell development, and the specific types of cancer that may result from germ cell lineage. He expects to utilize the center to optimize workflow and other enhancements in his research.

"The Applied Biosystems' Application Support Center will provide an efficient way to work on biological questions and optimize techniques in an interactive manner," said Dr. Looijenga. "The prospect of working with scientists from Applied Biosystems on correlation studies between copy numbers of DNA, messenger RNA, microRNA and proteins is very compelling to my research group. Combining these sets of data for analysis would provide comprehensive information on an entire biological system, which is integral to cancer research."

Applied Biosystems offers a comprehensive range of training and application support through 20 centers located around the world, including the facility recently opened in Shanghai, China. A global leader in the development and commercialization of instrument-based systems, consumables, software, and services for the life-science market, Applied Biosystems is closely aligned with its customers' emerging technology needs. The company has established these application support centers to help drive new applications and integrated workflows based on its technology platforms.

"Applied Biosystems is committed to being a valuable partner to our customers by providing them with a facility dedicated to providing best-in-class applications support," said Mark P. Stevenson, president for Applied Biosystems' molecular and cell biology division. "We envision this center as providing an environment for collaborating with our customers, developing new applications and providing comprehensive training on our technologies, all in an effort to address their most difficult research challenges and ultimately to advance their science."

More information is available at http://learn.appliedbiosystems.com/na/mcb

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 and develop new pharmaceuticals. Applied Biosystems' products also serve the needs of some markets outside of life science research, which we refer to as "applied markets," such as the fields of: human identity testing (forensic and paternity testing); biosecurity, which refers to products needed in response to the threat of biological terrorism and other malicious, accidental, and natural biological dangers; and quality and safety testing, for example in food and the environment. Applied Biosystems is headquartered in Foster City, CA, and reported sales of over $1.9 billion during fiscal 2006. The Celera Group is primarily a molecular diagnostics business that is using proprietary genomics and proteomics discovery platforms to identify and validate novel diagnostic markers, and is developing diagnostic products based on these markers. Celera maintains a strategic alliance with Abbott Laboratories for the development and commercialization of molecular, or nucleic acid-based, diagnostic products, and it is also developing new diagnostic products outside of this alliance. Through its genomics and proteomics research efforts, Celera is also discovering and validating therapeutic targets, and it is seeking to develop therapeutic products based on these discovered targets through strategic partnerships. 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/.

Applied Biosystems Forward Looking Statements

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking. These may be identified by the use of forward-looking words or phrases such as "should, "planned," and "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. These factors include but are not limited to: (1) rapidly changing technology and dependence on the development and customer acceptance of new products; (2) sales dependent on customers' capital spending policies and government-sponsored research; and (3) 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.

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(c)Copyright 2007. Applied Biosystems. All rights reserved. AB (Design), ABI PRISM, Applied Biosystems, Applera and Celera are registered trademarks and SOLiD is a trademark of Applera Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and/or certain other countries.