GENEPROT/ZYMARK SIGN AUTOMATION PACT FOR U.S./EUROPE.

GeneProt, Inc. and Zymark Corporation have entered into an agreement in which Zymark is named as an exclusive automation provider to GeneProt in the U.S. and Europe. Concurrently with this agreement, Zymark will make an equity investment in GeneProt.

The agreement provides for GeneProt to make an initial purchase of Zymark automation technologies. GeneProt will install two Zymark Staccato Proteomics Systems at its new industrial-scale proteomics facility in North Brunswick, NJ, currently being constructed, and two additional systems at its proteomics discovery and production center in Geneva, Switzerland.

GeneProt has also granted Zymark non-exclusive licensed access to specific research discovery content for Zymark's internal use that is not competitive with GeneProt or GeneProt's pharmaceutical and diagnostic partners. Zymark will also have the right of first negotiation to use this research discovery content to develop and sell consumable application kits for the life sciences market. GeneProt and Zymark will also collaborate on the development of next generation automation instrumentation.

The Staccato Proteomics System provides a key interface to GeneProt's industrial scale proteomics processes. Each system will automate in-gel protein digestion, all liquid handling steps as well as prepare protein and peptide samples for direct analysis by mass spectrometry. At the heart of each system are Zymark's Sciclone Advanced Liquid Handler, Twister II Advanced Capability Microplate Handler, TurboVap Concentration Workstation, and automated Incubator 44. Each of these components is connected and managed by Zymark's revolutionary CLARA system integration software.

"Further automation of GeneProt's protein identification and analysis processes brings additional speed and accuracy to the work we undertake for our pharmaceutical partners," said Cedric Loiret-Bernal, M.D., GeneProt's chief executive officer. "This is key to the delivery of synthesized proteins with high potential in the development of new human therapies. Our new partnership with Zymark confirms our commitment to employ the best technologies available in proteomics research and discoveries," added Loiret-Bernal.

"GeneProt's leading proteomics applications represent a great opportunity for us to utilize our existing platforms as well as develop technologies with the potential to further revolutionize the proteomics field," said Kevin Hrusovsky, Zymark president and CEO. "There is a great demand for high throughput and automated analysis methods in proteomics. GeneProt's choice of Zymark as the company's preferred U.S. and European provider of sample preparation automation technology demonstrates that our systems provide the optimum balance of throughput and robustness required to advance the entire field of proteomics."

About GeneProt

GeneProt, Inc. is a global industrial-scale proteomics company that identifies, characterizes, and synthesizes select human proteins and delivers them in powder form to pharmaceutical companies and other partners for use in the discovery and development of new therapeutic proteins, protein drug targets and protein biomarkers. GeneProt integrates multidisciplinary, collaborative teams of leading experts in proteomics and bioinformatics with the vision, insight and ability to bring new efficiencies to the development and enhanced quality of tomorrow's human therapies.

GeneProt's partners include leading pharmaceutical and technology companies and academic and scientific institutions such as Novartis, Compaq, Bruker Daltonics, Waters Corporation and the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics. The company will pursue additional partnerships with organizations that can derive value from or bring value to GeneProt's unique offerings in proteomics discovery and production. Pharmaceutical partnerships represent potential significant revenue sources for both the short and the long term.

With headquarters in North Brunswick, New Jersey, GeneProt opened the world's first fully operational, industrial-scale proteomics discovery and production facility in Geneva, Switzerland, in April 2001. The facility houses the world's largest life sciences supercomputer. It is also equipped with state-of-the-art mass spectrometers and some of the most advanced bioinformatic and computing data-storage technologies and uses leading genetic and protein databases. GeneProt's capacity will double when the second such facility opens at its headquarters site in the late summer of 2002.

For more information, visit http://www.geneprot.com.

About Zymark

Zymark is a provider of automation technologies and products serving the worldwide life science, biotechnology, and pharmaceutical industries. The company has introduced new automation paradigms that have empowered scientists to raise laboratory research to a new, more industrialized level. With these advances, Zymark has firmly established itself as a solutions provider with a single-minded goal of streamlining the entire drug discovery pipeline.

A number of leading companies in the life sciences industry including Aurora Biosciences Corporation, R.W. Johnson PRI and QIAGEN N.V., have chosen to form strategic partnerships with Zymark to accelerate their research. Zymark has also formed collaborations with Agilent, Applied Biosystems, Bruker Daltonics, Caliper, Cartesian, Cellomics, Brinkman/Eppendorf, Tecan, Varian, and Waters Corporation. The company's products reduce cycle times for a wide range of laboratories such as Aventis Pharmaceutical, the Janssen Research Foundation, Gene Logic, the National Bioenergy Center, and the Whitehead Institute at MIT.

The company recently closed its third consecutive year of record performance, achieving double-digit revenue and earning growth and has an annual revenue exceeding $70 million. In the past year Zymark has acquired $4 million in R&D funding from big pharma for the development of next generation technologies for nanoliter dispensing and automated hybridization. Zymark provides direct sales, service and applications support throughout the world and hosts the annual ISLAR conference on laboratory automation.

For more information, visit http://www.zymark.com or call 508/497-6541.