Helicos BioSciences Announces Additions to Scientific Advisory Board.

Genomic Experts to Join Renowned Board of Thought Leaders

CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- Helicos BioSciences, pioneering new frontiers in genetic analysis, today announced the addition of John Quackenbush, Ph.D. of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, and David Liu, Ph.D. of Harvard University, to its scientific advisory board.

Dr. John Quackenbush, Professor of Biostatistics and Computational Biology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute and Professor of Computational Biology and Bioinformatics at the Harvard School of Public Health, joins the Helicos BioSciences' advisory board with extensive experience in the genomics field including mapping, sequencing, functional genomics and bioinformatics. Dr. Quackenbush completed a Ph.D. in theoretical physics followed by a two-year postdoctoral position in experimental particle physics and phenomenology. Currently, Dr. Quackenbush is focused on research projects that include the identification of expression fingerprints and genomic alterations that are relevant to colon and breast tumor metastasis, the development of novel computational approaches for the interpretation of large-scale datasets and methods for data integration to facilitate gene discovery.

Dr. David Liu is Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Biology at Harvard University and an Associate Member of the Broad Institute of Harvard and MIT. Dr. Liu graduated first in his class from Harvard with a bachelor's degree in chemistry and earned his Ph.D. in chemistry at U. C. Berkeley. Throughout his undergraduate years, Dr. Liu performed research on sterol biosynthesis and then went on to study tRNAs and the enzymes that aminoacylate them, initiating the first general effort to expand on the genetic code in living cells. Dr. Liu has received numerous distinctions including being recently named to the Popular Science "Brilliant 10" for young scientists in the U.S., as well as to the MIT TR100 for young innovators.

"We're pleased to have John and David join our SAB," said Stanley N. Lapidus, President and CEO of Helicos. "Such accomplished and notable additions contribute greatly to the acceleration of Helicos' efforts. As we have moved from a technology development phase of the company to a commercial phase where knowledge of the science and its application to biological research is imperative to success, these prominent scientists will provide expert guidance in our efforts to lead the marketplace."

"I'm thrilled to be involved with such a pioneering technology platform within this genome-wide space," said John Quackenbush. "I look forward to working with the team at Helicos to pursue our similar passions of making accurate diagnostics for cancer and other diseases in this post-genomic era."

Welcoming John and David are fellow Helicos Scientific Advisory Board members: Stephen Quake, Professor of Bioengineering, Stanford University; Leroy Hood, President, Institute for Systems Biology; Steven Chu, Director, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Milan Mrksich, Professor of Chemistry, University of Chicago; Donald Crothers, Professor and Chairman, Emeritus, Chemistry, Yale University; and George Church, Professor of Genetics at Harvard Medical School and Director of the Center for Computational Genetics.

About Helicos BioSciences

Helicos BioSciences Corporation began operations in February 2004, and has raised $67 million from a top-tier investment consortium to date. Helicos is developing instruments and reagents for the high-speed sequencing of DNA and RNA with the highest possible sensitivity. The Helicos technology, based on pioneering research of Dr. Stephen Quake of Stanford University, is covered by a broad portfolio of granted and filed patents. The company commenced early-access collaborations in 2006 to generate ground breaking scientific publications and start creating revenue, while planning to launch its first commercial systems in 2007.

About tSMS(TM)

tSMS(TM) is a technique that enables researchers to rapidly and accurately sequence individual molecules of DNA and RNA. This allows direct interrogation of the single molecule as opposed to an amplified population of molecules. tSMS holds enormous potential for elucidating the gamut of genetic aberrations in oncology, through the ability to serve as a universal detection system across a wide variety of applications for both DNA and RNA.

Examples of some of the applications tSMS will enable are whole tumor resequencing, quantitative transcriptional profiling, genome wide methylation studies, and candidate region resequencing.

The advantages of tSMS over amplified molecule sequencing include: no PCR bias, no errors introduced by amplification, and no dephasing issues commonly present in amplified molecule sequencing. In addition, tSMS promises the highest possible throughput and enables reagent cost savings on the order of 1,000 times less than Sanger sequencing.