BioTrove Announces Issuance of First Patent for the Living Chip Massively Parallel Drug Discovery Technology.

Business Editors and Health/Medical Writers

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--(BW HealthWire)--June 3, 2002

BioTrove announced today that MIT has received a patent on the Living Chip(TM) technology, which is licensed exclusively world-wide to BioTrove.

U.S. patent No. 6,387,331 has been issued to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where the basic technology was invented. The patent encompasses the microchips as well as the imaging system used with the chips.

BioTrove has developed the Living Chip(TM) technology as a biotechnology platform for Massively Parallel Screening, Storage and Synthesis.

"The Living Chip(TM) is a total solution for nano-volume super-high-throughput chemical or biological library management and screening," stated Tom Morrison, Director of Biomolecular Discovery. "The platform will make compound and biological libraries immediately and directly accessible to scientists with a minimum footprint in terms of storage and associated instrumentation. Other benefits to the end-user include 100-fold reduction in sample volumes and a throughput in the millions of assays per day with a high degree of assay flexibility."

The Living Chip(TM) consists of a precisely constructed, high-density arrays of micro-channels, or bottomless wells, in a plate. The Living Chip(TM) may be thought of as a dense array of test-tubes that are easily filled and washed. The system combines the advantages of high-density arrays on glass slides, with the added functionality that liquids and gases may easily pass into and out of the channels.

About BioTrove:

BioTrove Inc. is a privately held, biotechnology company focused on leveraging revolutionary micro- and nano-scale engineering solutions to overcome current bottlenecks in drug discovery and biotechnology. BioTrove has two core technology platforms: the Living Chip(TM)and the Lab-on-a-Tape(TM).

The BioTrove team integrates biologists, analytical chemists and material scientists with electro-mechanical, optical, chemical and software engineers creating a cohesive interdisciplinary approach to technology development. BioTrove offers both library storage and screening services based on the core technology to partners. BioTrove's goal is to provide a solution to store and analyze at rates approaching one billion samples per day in nanoliter volumes.

The Living Chip technology was invented at MIT by Professor Ian Hunter of Mechanical Engineering and the Division of Bioengineering and Environmental Health. He is a co-founder of BioTrove.

For more information visit BioTrove's website at http://www.biotrove.com.