Pacific Biosciences Reports Progress Toward Providing the Premier Third Generation DNA Sequencing Solution

Data and Results from Collaborations to be Presented at AGBT; Company

Announces 13 New Members of Partner Program

MENLO PARK, Calif. & MARCO ISLAND, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

Joining other industry leaders at the 12^th annual Advances in

Genome Biology and Technology Conference (AGBT), Pacific Biosciences of

California, Inc. (NASDAQ:PACB) today provided an update on its progress

toward providing the premier complete solution to customers for third

generation DNA sequencing applications.

“We are entering the later stages of our limited production release

(LPR) program, and have begun upgrading the beta instruments to the

commercial hardware configurations,” said Hugh Martin, Chairman and CEO

of Pacific Biosciences. “In the months ahead, we expect to continue the

optimization of the chemistry, perform verification and validation of

the system, and provide software upgrades. We are on track to complete

this work and expect to begin shipping the commercial instruments in the

first half of 2011.”

Data generated using the PacBio RS system by early collaborators

and customers as well as Pacific Biosciences scientists will be

presented in eleven posters, four scientific sessions, and during the

company’s commercial workshop at AGBT. Highlights of work completed as

part of the Partner Program include a collaboration with RainDance

Technologies and the University of Pennsylvania to prepare HIV samples

using RainDance’s RainStorm™ microdroplet-based PCR platform and

PacBio’s SMRTbell™ template preparation methods for sequencing on the

PacBio RS.

“In my lab we are characterizing HIV splice variants to understand

mechanisms of viral replication,” said Frederic Bushman, Ph.D.,

Professor of Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania. “Using

targeted and third generation DNA sequencing techniques we

have identified a collection of new splice variants of HIV that may

encode novel proteins.”

“Infectious disease research is a key application that stands to benefit

from the advantages of the PacBio RS system,” commented Eric

Schadt, Ph.D., Chief Scientific Officer of Pacific Biosciences. “In

addition to the collaboration with UPenn and RainDance on HIV, data will

be presented at AGBT by Gen-Probe using our system to better

characterize HCV and HLA, and I will present further details about our

work to rapidly sequence the Haitian cholera pathogen.”

“Whether it is for monitoring drug resistance in Hepatitis C or AIDS

patients, elucidating the cloud of virus that exists in patient samples,

or real-time monitoring of pathogens over broad geographic regions to

predict outbreaks, Single Molecule Real Time (SMRT™) sequencing enables

a new era of molecular epidemiology,” he added.

First announced in conjunction with last year’s AGBT conference, the

Pacific Biosciences Partner Program has continued to evolve to span key

synergistic areas of the PacBio RS sequencing workflow including

consumables, automation systems, complementary instrumentation, services

and supporting software and hardware. The company announced the

following new partners:

• Automation and microfluidics: Beckman Coulter, Hamilton Company, and

  Tecan Group Ltd.

• Shearing and fragmentation: Covaris, Diagenode, Digilab, and

  Microsonic Systems

• Size selection: Sage Science

• Data analysis and cloud computing: Biomatters Limited, DNAnexus,

  DNASTAR, Galaxy, and Genomatix Software

As an example of a solution created using the application programming

interfaces (APIs) available through PacBio’s Developer’s Network

(DevNet), Anton Nekrutenko, Ph.D. from Penn State University, and James

Taylor, Ph.D. from Emory University, developers of Galaxy, will share

how they have used the scalable, open-source tools, and APIs available

through DevNet to integrate the PacBio workflow into their popular data

management and analysis tool. The solution

provides status and traceability from sample submission to

post-processing and integrates with existing analysis pipelines such as

variant/SNP calling.

A description of the Partner Program and full list of companies

participating can be found on the PacBio website: https://www.pacificbiosciences.com/community/partner_program.

More information about the company’s activities at this week’s AGBT

conference can be found at https://pacificbiosciences.com/AGBT2011/.

About Pacific Biosciences

Pacific Biosciences’ mission is to transform the way humankind acquires,

processes and interprets data from living systems through the design,

development and commercialization of innovative tools for biological

research. The company has developed a novel approach to studying the

synthesis and regulation of DNA, RNA and proteins. Combining recent

advances in nanofabrication, biochemistry, molecular biology, surface

chemistry and optics, Pacific Biosciences has created a powerful

technology platform called single molecule, real-time, or SMRT™,

technology. SMRT technology enables real-time analysis of biomolecules

with single molecule resolution, which has the potential to transform

the understanding of biological systems by providing a window into these

systems that has not previously been open for scientific study.

This press release contains forward-looking statements relating to our

plans to continue to optimize the chemistry, perform verification, and

validation of the system, and provide software upgrades and to begin

shipping in the first half of this year. Forward-looking statements may

contain words such as “believe,” “may,” “estimate,” “anticipate,”

“continue,” “intend,” “expect,” “plan,” the negative of these terms, or

other similar expressions, and include the assumptions that underlie

such statements. These statements are subject to known and unknown risks

and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially

from those expressed or implied by such statements, including but not

limited to risks discussed from time to time in documents we have filed

with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the risks

identified under the section captioned “Risk Factors” in our most

recently filed Form 10-Q.

Media:
For Pacific BiosciencesNicole Litchfield, 415-793-6468
nicole@bioscribe.com
or
Investors:
Pacific

BiosciencesBen Gong, 650-521-8450
ir@pacificbiosciences.com

Source: Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc.

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