Gulf Coast Consortium Members to Use Invitrogen's Stealth siRNA Libraries in Screening Centers.

CARLSBAD, Calif. & HOUSTON -- Invitrogen Corporation (Nasdaq:IVGN), a provider of essential life science technologies for disease research and drug discovery, today announced it has formed a strategic scientific relationship with researchers from Baylor College of Medicine and The University of Texas at Houston, part of the John S. Dunn Gulf Coast Consortium for Chemical Genomics (GCC-CG).

As part of the relationship, consortium members plan to use Invitrogen's broad gene expression and imaging portfolio to enable discovery of biomedically relevant aspects of gene and protein expression through advanced screening techniques. The screening centers will focus on many aspects of disease-related biology including diabetes, cancer and steroid hormone-related metabolic disorders.

Peter Davies, M.D., executive vice president of research at University of Texas Health Science Center, and director of GCC-CG, stated, "Invitrogen's siRNA screening technologies and their high content, high throughput assays will greatly assist us in a variety of research being conducted by GCC-CG researchers," a view echoed by Kathleen Matthews, chair of the Gulf Coast Consortia Oversight Committee.

Scientists at core facilities at Baylor College of Medicine and University of Texas Health Science Center will use their expertise in high content, high throughput image-based screening and quantitative gene expression, respectively, to maximize the biological content from these experiments. Initial experiments will use Invitrogen's human kinase, human nuclear receptor, and mouse nuclear receptor collections. The quantitative effects of the siRNA molecules on gene and protein expression will be assessed using Invitrogen's novel, highly sensitive SYBR GreenER(TM) real time qPCR technology, and image-based tools from its Molecular Probes(TM) portfolio.

"Invitrogen is committed to driving gene expression analysis techniques forward," said Amy Butler, Ph.D., vice president, gene expression profiling, at Invitrogen. "This broad collaboration with renowned research centers allows us to jointly make important contributions to new medical and drug development research."

Additional participating members of the GCC-CG are Rice University, University of Houston, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, and The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Together the six institutions form a larger organization, the Gulf Coast Consortia.

"This partnership allows us to work with many key decision makers in the academic marketplace," said Lewis Vann, Ph.D, business development manager for Invitrogen's Consortium Program. "By combining resources and technologies we are maximizing the impact on consortium-based research."

"Access to Invitrogen's siRNA library and hardware/software resources for screens that reach down to the individual investigator laboratory is very efficient," said Michael A. Mancini, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology at Baylor College of Medicine, and co-director of the GCC-CG.

About Invitrogen

Invitrogen Corporation (Nasdaq:IVGN) provides products and services that support academic and government research institutions and pharmaceutical and biotech companies worldwide in their efforts to improve the human condition. The company provides essential life science technologies for disease research, drug discovery, and commercial bioproduction. Invitrogen's own research and development efforts are focused on breakthrough innovation in all major areas of biological discovery including functional genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics and cell biology -- placing Invitrogen's products in nearly every major laboratory in the world. Founded in 1987, Invitrogen is headquartered in Carlsbad, California, and conducts business in more than 70 countries around the world. The company is celebrating 20 years of accelerating scientific discovery. Invitrogen globally employs approximately 5,000 scientists and other professionals and had revenues of more than $1.2 billion in 2006. For more information, visit www.invitrogen.com.

About GCC 

The Gulf Coast Consortia (GCC) brings together the strengths of its six member institutions to build interdisciplinary collaborative research teams and training programs in the biological sciences at their intersection with the computational, chemical, mathematical, and physical sciences. Comprised of six prominent and geographically proximate Gulf Coast institutions, Baylor College of Medicine, Rice University, University of Houston, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, the GCC's goal is to provide a cutting edge collaborative training environment and research infrastructure, one beyond the capability of any single institution. The GCC's mission is to train the next generation of bioscientists and to enable scientists to ask and answer questions that cross scientific disciplines to address the challenging biological issues of our time and, ultimately, to apply the resulting expertise and knowledge to the treatment and prevention of disease.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain statements contained in this press release are considered "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and it is Invitrogen's intent that such statements be protected by the safe harbor created thereby. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those regarding: 1) The partnership will enable consortium members to use Invitrogen's broad gene expression and imaging portfolio to enable discovery of biomedically relevant aspects of gene and protein expression through advanced screening techniques; 2) That scientists at core facilities at Baylor College of Medicine and University of Texas Health Science Center will use their expertise in high content, high throughput image-based screening and quantitative gene expression, respectively, to maximize the biological content from these experiments; Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risks: a) of any inability to timely create or acquire new benefits with the desired characteristics; and b) of the unpredictability of future demand for current or future products; as well as other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in Invitrogen's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.