Additional patent issued for cell-based assays strengthens BioTrove’s intellectual property portfolio

Woburn, MA, July 15, 2004—BioTrove, Inc. announced today that the Company has acquired an exclusive license from Stanford University for patent applications that cover the use of a through-hole structured microarray to perform PCR. Separately, BioTrove has been issued a patent on a novel method using the Company’s proprietary OpenArray™ platform for high-density cell assay and culture. BioTrove is commercializing its OpenArray™ platform, a nanofluidic system for massively parallel analysis using Thru-Hole™ technology, for use by life science researchers.

“The Stanford patent applications and the cell maintenance patent are important parts of our large and growing patent portfolio around BioTrove’s Thru-Hole™ technology,” remarked Robert Hess, Director of Licensing and Intellectual Property at BioTrove. “We identified these patent applications as potentially valuable because the inventors, Matthew O’Keefe and Pamela Foreman, were early to see the utility of performing high-density, parallel gene amplification in a through-hole structure.” The new BioTrove patent covers an innovative application of BioTrove’s OpenArray™ technology that allows for the maintenance and growth of cells in a microfluidic environment, with potential application in cell-based assays.

Both the licensing and the new patent strengthen BioTrove’s existing through-hole array patent portfolio. BioTrove’s through-hole intellectual property portfolio includes eight patents issued or allowed and numerous patents pending.

The OpenArray™ platform includes a nanotiter plate requiring only nanoliter-sized quantities of sample per through-hole. It can be used for massively parallel and low-volume analysis of genetic, genomic, proteomic, biochemical and cellular samples. The platform uniquely combines the parallelism of microarrays with the data quality of PCR to perform genetic and genomic assays, including genotyping and RNA expression analysis.

About BioTrove, Inc.
BioTrove, Inc. is a biotechnology company focused on advancing life science and drug discovery research by leveraging revolutionary micro- and nano-scale technologies. BioTrove has two core platforms: OpenArray™ Applications based on Thru-Hole™ technology, a broadly applicable nano-liter fluidics technology platform for massively parallel and low-volume analysis of genetic, genomic, proteomic, biochemical and cellular samples, and RapidFire™ Lead Discovery, an assay development and high throughput screening service that unlocks the value of intractable drug targets.

For more information contact:

Patrick T. Carroll
BioTrove, Inc.
info@biotrove.com
(781) 721-3632

Jennifer Cosenza
Feinstein Kean Healthcare
jennifer.cosenza@fkhealth.com
(617) 761-6750