Bio Screening Industry News

Arrayjet has announced the sale of two Aj100 Inkjet Microarray Spotters to the combined Universities of Exeter and Nottingham.

The machines were purchased by Dr Andrew Shaw at Exeter and Professor Paul O’Shea at Nottingham, to form the mainstay microarray capability of the ‘Attogram Project’, a collaboration between the two universities, funded by the EPSRC.

Dr Shaw, Senior Lecturer in Physical Chemistry at the University of Exeter and Attogram Project Principal Investigator (PI), explained that the their aim is “to build a new instrument based on novel techniques which will help us screen many ideas with applications in chemical biology in the pharmaceutical industry and disease diagnosis.”

Dr Shaw continued, “We chose the Arrayjet Aj100, as it is our plan to develop the screening technology we are designing to perform on-line analysis of compounds.”

“For this to be possible, not only is it necessary to avoid damaging the surface onto which we wish to array, but also to be able to perform spot-on-spot printing in the future; this is only possible using non-contact printing technology.”

“The Arrayjet spotters are the only machines which combine the necessary speed of throughput and sample capacity with the non-contact printing technology we need.”

Arrayjet’s Sales and Marketing Director Duncan Hall, was impressed by the systematic approach Dr Shaw took in deciding to purchase the spotters, “We are delighted to supply the Attogram Project with our technology and to support such interesting and exciting research, the output of which could change the face of global healthcare.”

Hall continued, “This sale follows very closely on the heels of a recent purchase by the SCGTI in Scotland and confirms that our technology is at the cutting edge of microarray printing and extremely robust.”

Further Information: http://www.arrayjet.co.uk/

HAMBURG, Germany and OXFORD, England, September 13 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Evotec AG (Frankfurt Stock Exchange: EVT, TecDAX 30) today reported that during the one month safety and tolerability study with EVT 301 in young and elderly volunteers, several cases of asymptomatic elevated liver function tests in the elderly group have been observed. All cases reversed spontaneously. No cases of elevated liver function tests were observed within the young healthy volunteer group.

In the light of these findings Evotec has stopped the ongoing Phase I trials and has decided today to discontinue the development programme. As the planned Phase II trial with EVT 301 will not be executed this will free approximately EUR 20 million of R&D money over the next two to three years for other development programmes.

“Our strategy is to develop high-quality compounds to later stage development with the goal of monetising these assets for partnering. Successful drug development requires discipline. Although advancement of this programme would have been optimal, it is better that the investment in EVT 301 has been capped now rather than after a large investment in later stage trials. We continue to believe there is ample opportunity in our current proprietary portfolio of CNS candidates, including our insomnia drug EVT 201 and the potential of EVT 101 for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, neuropathic pain or other indications. The discontinuation of the EVT 301 programme will free up EUR 20 million, which will provide us a lot of flexibility in developing our pipeline,” said Joern Aldag, President & Chief Executive Officer of Evotec.

“Alzheimer’s disease is a large unmet medical need and Evotec continues to believe in the potential of MAO-B inhibition and its role in treating CNS related disorders. We will assess the findings of EVT 301 in full detail. In other respects, our pipeline is progressing well. EVT 201 and EVT 101 continue to meet their clinical milestones and we look forward to apprising you of their developments later this year,” added John Kemp, Chief Research & Development Officer of Evotec.

EVT 301 is an orally active, selective and reversible inhibitor of monoamine oxidase B (MAO-B) which was in development for Alzheimer’s disease.

About Evotec AG

Evotec is a leader in the discovery and development of novel small molecule drugs. Both through its own discovery programmes and through contract research partnerships, the Company is generating the highest quality research results to its partners in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries.

In proprietary projects, Evotec specialises in finding new treatments for diseases of the Central Nervous System. Evotec has two programmes in clinical development: EVT 201, a partial positive allosteric modulator (pPAM) of the GABAA receptor complex for the treatment of insomnia, and EVT 101, a subtype selective NMDA receptor antagonist for the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease and/or neuropathic pain.

In contract research, Evotec has established itself as the partner of choice for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies worldwide. The Company provides innovative and often integrated solutions from drug target to clinic through an unmatched range of capabilities, including early stage assay development and screening through to medicinal chemistry and drug manufacturing.

In 2005, Evotec has generated sales of EUR 80 million with 600 employees located in Hamburg, Germany and near Oxford and in Glasgow, UK.

www.evotec.com

Contact:
Evotec AG
Anne Hennecke
Director, Investor Relations & Corporate Communications
Phone: +49-40-56081-286
Fax: +49-40-56081-333
E-Mail: anne.hennecke@evotec.com

Newswise — Scientists at a Maryland-based pharmaceutical company have preliminary evidence showing that a protein in the blood may prove to be a biomarker that is more sensitive and specific than current methods of early detection for prostate cancer.

If they’re right, the protein – an enzyme called human aspartyl (asparaginyl) beta-hydroxylase, or HAAH – could ultimately help reduce the number of unnecessary biopsies for prostate cancer and may identify cancer at an earlier stage when treatment would have a higher likelihood of success.

Prostate cancer is expected to account for more than 234,000 new cases and about 27,000 deaths in the United States in 2006. The American Cancer Society recommends that all men over 50 be screened annually with two standard tests: the prostate specific antigen, or PSA, which measures a protein in the blood, and the digital rectal exam, or DRE, which entails a physical exam the prostate.

Yet the PSA and DRE can be inexact and, at times, not specific or sensitive to cancer. High PSA levels are found in both cancerous and healthy tissue, particularly in benign prostate disease, resulting in significant numbers of false positive cases. The DRE, based on physician touch and skill, relies on subjective judgment. As a result, a man who has prostate cancer can have both a normal PSA and DRE. Conversely, an individual with a high PSA and an abnormal DRE could be cancer-free.

“There is a great need for a test that increases the sensitivity and specificity of those two other tests for prostate cancer,” said Stephen Keith, M.D., M.S.P.H., president and chief operating officer of Panacea Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Gaithersburg, MD.

Results were presented at the first meeting on Molecular Diagnostics in Cancer Therapeutic Development, organized by the American Association for Cancer Research.

“Currently, if an individual has a high PSA and positive DRE, the recommendation is that he has a biopsy of the prostate, and more often than not – by some estimates, as much as 80 percent of the time – there will not be evidence of cancer,” Dr. Keith said.

Yet, biopsies can be painful, expensive and difficult to perform, and may cause a high number of infections, noted Hossein Ghanbari, Ph.D., chief executive officer and chief scientific officer at Panacea.

According to Ghanbari, HAAH is overexpressed in at least 20 types of cancer tested to date, including liver, breast, ovarian, colon, esophageal, and prostate. It has been shown to be involved in tumor growth, invasiveness and cancer spread.

The researchers previously examined tissue from more than 20 different cancer types and compared them to more than 1,000 normal tissue types. Using immunohistochemistry techniques, they found that more than 99 percent of cancers were positive for HAAH. None of the normal issue samples were positive.

To find a more accurate way to detect prostate cancer, Ghanbari and his co-workers at Panacea developed a test in which they could detect HAAH in blood serum.

In the current work, Ghanbari and his co-workers compared HAAH levels in the blood of 16 individuals with prostate cancer to 23 healthy individuals. Those with prostate cancer showed high HAAH levels, whereas none of the normal control individuals did.

“We’ve learned that HAAH is generally detected in prostate cancer and not in normal prostate tissue, in addition to a number of other cancers,” he said.

The scientists foresee the HAAH test used in conjunction with DRE and PSA testing. “We hope our HAAH blood test combined with PSA and DRE will increase the sensitivity and specificity of screening for prostate cancer,” said Keith. “Those without cancer can avoid unnecessary biopsies through the use of all three screening tests.”

“Having a positive DRE and high PSA, the HAAH would put the final stamp of approval,” Ghanbari said.

Panacea scientists are planning clinical trials with prostate tissue samples from 800 patients, including 400 men with prostate cancer and 400 healthy individuals.

“The goal is to be able to take someone with increasing PSA numbers and a positive DRE, measure the HAAH level and look at biopsy results,” Ghanbari said, “and be confident that HAAH provides the additional benefit in terms of specificity and sensitivity. The addition of HAAH should improve the prediction of who will have positive biopsy results for prostate cancer.”

The mission of the American Association for Cancer Research is to prevent and cure cancer. Founded in 1907, AACR is the world’s oldest and largest professional organization dedicated to advancing cancer research. The membership includes more than 24,000 basic, translational, and clinical researchers; health care professionals; and cancer survivors and advocates in the United States and more than 60 other countries. AACR marshals the full spectrum of expertise from the cancer community to accelerate progress in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cancer through high-quality scientific and educational programs. It funds innovative, meritorious research grants. The AACR Annual Meeting attracts more than 17,000 participants who share the latest discoveries and developments in the field. Special Conferences throughout the year present novel data across a wide variety of topics in cancer research, treatment, and patient care. AACR publishes five major peer-reviewed journals: Cancer Research; Clinical Cancer Research; Molecular Cancer Therapeutics; Molecular Cancer Research; and Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention. Its most recent publication, CR, is a magazine for cancer survivors, patient advocates, their families, physicians, and scientists. It provides a forum for sharing essential, evidence-based information and perspectives on progress in cancer research, survivorship, and advocacy.

Quantum Pharma, a drug discovery and computational chemistry software and contract services provider, Moscow, Russia, and TimTec, a provider of synthetic organic and natural compounds for bioscreening, Delaware, US, singed up a collaboration agreement. Quantum computational chemistry software with unique capabilities is available now through TimTec. In the future companies will co-develop products for drug-discovery utilizing Quantum Pharma computational capabilities and TimTec in-stock and virtual screening compound resources, and expertise in comprising compound library collections.

Maxim Kholin, Business Development Director at Quantum Pharmaceuticals comments on the collaboration: “We are glad to work with TimTec, the company that has strong expertise and recognized reputation on the market. Our technological breakthrough in software development has huge market potential. Now our main goal is to bring this new generation technology to the market. All our potential customers know very well the limitations of existing approaches and software. We know that once researchers evaluate Quantum software they will enjoy accuracy and benefits of our capable applications. I believe together with TimTec we will introduce better computational tools on the market of drug discovery and computational chemistry software and services.”

QUANTUM SOFTWARE MODULES

HIT IDENTIFICATION

1. IC50 protein-ligand complex Calculates the free binding energy and thus predicts the IC50 of a given protein-ligand complex.

2. Docking Finds the position of a small molecule in the active site of a given protein with the minimum value of the free binding energy and predicts the IC50 of the ligand.

3. Screening Screens in-silico a library of small-molecules. Finds their positions in the active site with the minimum value of the free binding energy and predicts the IC50 values of these molecules).

4. Scaffold Based Drug Design Designs a De Novo ligand - a potential drug candidate - which will interact specifically with a selected molecular target on the basis of scaffold library.

ADMET

Lead Selectivity Detects broad relative selectivity, potential adverse activity and additional unexpected activity for a library of compounds by screening them against several thousands of proteins.

PROTEOMICS

1. Protein Dynamics does geometry optimization, performs calculations to find stable (local energy minimum) configurations of a protein. Software analyses large-scale protein movements; provides normal mode analysis of proteins and builds their large-scale amplitude movements helping to evaluate the degree of protein flexibility in modeling their conformational changes.

Mutagenesis provides an interface for changing the protein sequence at specific sites through alterations to its amino acids. It is useful tool for activity prediction and the research of mutated proteins with other modules of Quantum.

Superimpose identifies the best fit for two molecules.

2. IC50 Protein-Protein Complex calculates free binding energy and predicts the IC50 of a given protein-protein complex.

COMPUTATIONAL CHEMISTRY

1. Solubility and LogP Prediction calculates the solvation energy and solubility for a library of molecules in a number of solvents (water and DMSO); Predicts LogP.

2. pKa (protonation state) Prediction analyzes a molecule, finds protonation states, calculates pKa values for various protonation reactions and identifies the proper protonation state for a given pH.

Please contact TimTec to request product information:

Kay Denis, Business Development

TimTec
http://ww.timtec.net
Suite A, 301 Ruthar Dr
Newark DE 19711
Tel 302 292 8500 x 206
Fax 302 292 8520
info@timtec.net

About Quantum Pharmaceuticals

Quantum Pharmaceuticals is a drug discovery and computational chemistry software and contract services provider. The areas of technology application are virtual screening, hit/lead identification and optimization, ADMET prediction, computational chemistry and biology, bioinformatics. The Quantum software was developed using a new paradigm in molecular modeling - applying quantum and molecular physics instead of statistical scoring-function-like and QSAR-like methods. The proprietary technology includes the latest achievements in the fields of chemistry, physics and mathematics. It demonstrates outstanding speed and accuracy of affinity and other calculations due to fast quantum calculations, which take into account full flexibility of molecules, solvation effects, and entropy contribution.

About Timtec LLC

Timtec LLC is a privately held company located in Delaware, USA. It was founded in 1995 and began its work in the areas of acquisition and distribution of synthetic organic and natural compounds, custom synthesis, and laboratory equipment to become a full service partner for drug discovery. Timtec has established a global network of thousands of scientists from many research centers around the world. The company has developed strong in-house expertise assembling general, targeted, and custom library collections for variety of research applications. International customers include major pharmaceutical, biotech, agricultural, and educational companies and institutions, which use Timtec products for research and development programs.

TimTec LLC, Newark, DE, USA and EnBioTec Co, Ltd, Tokyo, Japan, have entered into a collaboration agreement focusing on discovering unique and novel lead compounds. TimTec will supply targeted compound collections for newly developed assay technology sharing its experience in synthetic organic chemistry. Enbiotech recently expended into drug discovery area having successfully introduced Receptor Cofactor Assay System (RCAS). The system allows evaluating the interaction between nuclear hormone receptors and co-factor in the presence of a compound. RCAS is cell-free and highly sensitive being able to distinguish agonist or antagonist interactions. EnBioTec and TimTec plan on a series of functional assays to co-develop nuclear receptor based lead compounds for drug discovery.

EnBioTec, Tokyo, Japan, emerged as an environmental biotechnology company specializing in R&D and product development for environmental diagnostics, contamination clean-up, and developing of environmentally-friendly materials. EnBioTec initiated Nuclear Receptor based Drug Discovery Consortium, a network of government, academic, and for-profit organizations, to combine resources to foster drug discovery.

Contact person:

EnBioTec

http://www.enbiotec.co.up

Mike Tanaka, Business Development

Phone: (408) 966-6902

Email: tanaka@enbiotec.co.jp

Timtec Corporation is a privately held company located in Newark Delaware, USA. It was founded in 1995 and began its work in the areas of acquisition and distribution of synthetic organic and natural compounds for Highthroughput screening, custom synthesis, and Cheminformatics to become a full service partner for drug discovery. Timtec has established a global network of thousands of scientists from many research centers around the world. The company has developed strong in-house expertise in assembling general, targeted, and custom library collections for variety of research applications. International customers include major pharmaceutical, biotech, agricultural and educational companies and institutions, which use Timtec products for research and development programs.

Contact person:

TimTec

http://www.timtec.net

Kay Denisova, Marketing and Business Development

Tel 302 292 8500 x 206
Fax 302 292 8520
info@timtec.net

MerLion Pharmaceuticals Pte Ltd (MerLion) of Singapore, the world’s leading natural products based drug discovery company, announces that it has completed a merger by exchange of shares with Combinature Biopharm AG (Berlin, Germany) and Athelas SA (Geneva, Switzerland).

SINGAPORE, Singapore | Aug 21, 2006 | MerLion Pharmaceuticals Pte Ltd (MerLion) of Singapore, the world’s leading natural products based drug discovery company, announces that it has completed a merger by exchange of shares with Combinature Biopharm AG. (Berlin, Germany) and Athelas SA (Geneva, Switzerland). Both European companies become 100% subsidiaries of MerLion whose headquarters and drug discovery research centre is based in Singapore. Drug development of its anti-infective programmes and nuclear magnetic resonance screening activities will be conducted from Berlin.

Dr Tony Buss, CEO of MerLion said “This major expansion of our capabilities, combined with proven drug discovery technologies and promising clinical candidates, position MerLion for its next exciting phase of growth. The company will continue its lead discovery activities in a range of therapeutic areas and will focus on the clinical development of anti-infective drugs.”

Dr Harald Labischinski, CEO of Combinature Biopharm and the new Chief Scientific Officer of MerLion, said “Combinature is very pleased to enter into such a strategic agreement with the leading natural compound research company and is now for the first time in the position to forward the new company’s most advanced antibiotic compounds from late stage pre-clinical development through phase I and phase II clinical. We expect to start our first clinical programmes with a novel mode of action resistance breaker antibiotic as well as with a new subclass of a broad spectrum antibiotic class within a few months from now.”

Dr Christine Deuschel, CEO of Athelas, said “MerLion offers Athelas an exceptional opportunity to progress the development of our novel anti-pathogenicity platform. The integration of Athelas’ DiVi Technology will provide MerLion with a broad and completely novel way of discovering new molecules based on a mechanism of action unexploited to date”.

The company has also completed the first closure of US$ 25M from a US$30M round of financing, which will be completed in full during the fourth quarter of 2006. This funding will propel the company towards an initial public offering within two years. The round, led by Aravis Venture of Switzerland and Bio*One Capital Pte Ltd of Singapore, represents one of the largest private rounds of funding raised for a drug discovery and development company in the region.

Ms. Swee Yeok Chu, CEO of Bio*One Capital and Mr. Jean-Philippe Tripet, Managing Partner of Aravis stated: “We believe that this cross border merger and financing is a landmark deal in Asia that confirms the ability of biotechnology companies to successfully develop from Singapore, capitalising on international alliances, funding from international investors, as well as strong local infrastructure that supports the growth of the company. With this financing and acquisitions, MerLion has now built a profile that compares with the best emerging biotechnology companies globally.”

Other participants in this round of funding include Nomura Research and Advisory, Aurelia Private Equity, Brandenburg Capital, Bioveda Capital, Novartis Venture Fund Mitsubishi Corporation and 3i Group Investment LP.

Michael Toenes of BC Venture GmbH , Juergen Leschke, Management Partner Aurelia Private Equity, Dr. Clemens Doppler of 3i Group Investment LP and Dr Dirk Honold, former CFO of Combinature stated: “The new company is now in the exciting position to further fill and advance the pipeline and to start clinical testing with very promising antibiotic drugs which have already shown exciting profiles. By the transaction the combined entity will have a strategic position to enter into the highly attractive and growing markets in the important area of novel anti-infectives.” In addition to progressing at least two anti-infective candidates into clinical proof of concept studies and developing the growing portfolio of earlier candidates towards the clinic, MerLion will retain its strong partnership alliances in natural products drug discovery and will expand in two main areas;

Novel Anti-Infectives Discovery The acquisition of the anti-infectives DiVi discovery platform of Athelas, which received an award at the 2005 Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC), provides MerLion with strong target generation capabilities and proprietary drug discovery screening systems in the area of bacterial pathogenicity.

Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Screening The experienced NMR screening group based in Berlin will continue to utilise their expertise and technology with existing partners and in support of ongoing MerLion portfolio projects. This technology is the subject of increasing interest to the industry and is capable of advancing discovery by closely identifying how active compounds interact with drug targets and how these interactions may be optimised. MerLion would like to recognise the professional services provided during this complex transaction by Jones Day, CMS, Wong Partnership, Schellenburg-Wittmer, Vischer, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young and Maidavale Consulting.

For more information, please visit http://www.merlionpharma.com Contact Chris Molloy, MerLion Pharmaceuticals Pte Ltd, The Capricorn #05-01, Singapore Science Park II, Singapore 117528 Tel: +65 6829 5606 Fax: +65 6829 5601 enquiries@merlionpharma.com

SOURCE: MerLion Pharmaceuticals Pte Ltd

BIOWIRE

Invitrogen Corporation (Nasdaq:IVGN), a global leader in life sciences, and Sentigen Holding Corp. (Nasdaq:SGHL) today announced that they had entered into a definitive merger agreement under which Invitrogen will acquire New Jersey-based Sentigen in a cash transaction at a price of $3.37 per share, or approximately $25.9 million for all shares currently issued and outstanding. As of June 30, 2006, Sentigen had cash and cash investments on its books valued at approximately $11.7 million and debt of $0.8 million.

Sentigen’s proprietary Tango(TM) Assay System and division arrested Assay Ready Cells(TM) will bolster Invitrogen’s leading position in assay development by providing a novel approach to screen G-protein coupled receptors (GPCR) and other key drug target classes, as well as providing a methodology to convert live cell assays into ready-to-use consumable products. Sentigen will become a part of Invitrogen’s Discovery Sciences Business based in Madison, Wis.

Tango(TM) assay technology provides a universal assay system for GPCR targets, the most screened target class in drug discovery. The Tango(TM) assay platform also has utility in measuring protein-protein interactions in living cells, which can be an important way to determine the function of a protein of interest. Sentigen’s Assay Ready Cells(TM) technology is designed to improve the quality and consistency of cellular assays used in drug screening and reduce the need of our clients to engage in costly ongoing cell culture operations to support cell-based drug discovery, effectively uncoupling the process of cell production from drug screening.

“Adding Sentigen’s capabilities to our drug discovery platform gives researchers an even broader array of solutions for GPCR screening, profiling and other cellular studies,” explained Nick Ecos, Vice President and General Manager of Invitrogen’s Discovery Sciences business.

“The synergy created by combining Invitrogen’s cell and molecular biology products with Sentigen’s cell-based technologies and custom services enhances our strategic commitment to scientists engaged in cell-based drug discovery by offering our clients comprehensive solutions and support,” said Tom Livelli, Sentigen’s President and CEO.

The transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including the approval of Sentigen’s stockholders and is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Invitrogen does not expect this acquisition to have a material affect on its financials in fiscal year 2006 or decelerate the progress of its share repurchase program previously announced on August 3, 2006.

“We are committed to deploying our capital for purchases of targeted acquisitions, such as Sentigen, as well as executing upon our share repurchase program,” said David Hoffmeister, Invitrogen’s Chief Financial Officer. “As we indicated on our earnings call, we plan to use a sizable portion of the authorization in the near term and we have already made progress towards this goal.”

About Invitrogen Corporation

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 and cell biology — placing Invitrogen’s products in nearly every major laboratory in the world. Founded in 1987, Invitrogen is headquartered in Carlsbad, Calif., and conducts business in more than 70 countries around the world. The company globally employs approximately 4,800 professionals and had revenues of more than $1.2 billion in 2005. For more information, visit www.invitrogen.com.

About Sentigen Holding Corp.

Sentigen Holding Corp. conducts business through two wholly-owned operating subsidiaries: Sentigen Biosciences, Inc. (”Sentigen Biosciences”) and Cell & Molecular Technologies, Inc. (”CMT”). CMT provides contract research and development services to companies engaged in the drug discovery process in the following areas: molecular and cell biology, gene expression and protein biochemistry, bio-processing, high throughput screening support services, mouse genetics and cell-based GPCR selectivity profiling. Sentigen Biosciences has been primarily engaged in the development and commercialization of novel bioassay systems that elucidate the underlying biology of protein-protein interactions. Sentigen Biosciences has initially targeted its Tango(TM) Assay System to address the functionalization of G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) for pharmaceutical drug discovery and development. For more information on our companies, please visit their respective websites: www.cmt-inc.net and www.sentigen.com.

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: 1) Sentigen’s Tango Assay System and division arrested Assay Ready Cells will improve Invitrogen’s position in assay development for GPCRs; and 2) the Sentigen business will become a part of Invitrogen’s Discovery Sciences Group. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risks that: a) Sentigen’s technologies may not have a significant impact on Invitrogen’s assay development activities; and b) Invitrogen may choose to align the business in an area outside the Discovery Sciences group., as well as other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in Invitrogen’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

CONTACT: