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ParAllele Press Release

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Tom Willis, Ph.D.
ParAllele BioScience

e-mail: 		Karen L. Bergman

Michelle Corral

PARALLELE BIOSCIENCE AND MERCK TO COLLABORATE ON SNP GENOTYPING STUDY

Utilizing ParAllele's Proprietary SNP Genotyping Technologies

South San Francisco, CA, July 9, 2003 - ParAllele BioScience today announced a collaboration with Merck to conduct a SNP genotyping study using ParAllele's "lab in a tube"(TM) technology for comprehensive genetic research.

Under the Merck-funded study, ParAllele will develop assays, perform highly multiplexed genotyping, and provide data analysis as well as develop certain platform extensions of interest to Merck. Further terms of the collaboration were not disclosed.

ParAllele has developed a suite of powerful single-tube assays for discovering and screening genetic markers, known as single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). With ParAllele's proprietary "lab in a tube"(TM) approach, over 10,000 user-defined SNPs can be screened in a single laboratory reaction, increasing the efficiency of large scale studies by 10 to 1,000 fold. The accuracy and scalability of the technology has previously been demonstrated in the NIH -funded HapMap project.

"We are excited by the opportunity to work with Merck, a pioneer in the application of comprehensive gene expression analysis across the spectrum of drug discovery and development. We hope that our genotyping technology can be leveraged in a similar way," said Tom Willis, Ph.D., ParAllele's President and CEO. "Funded research collaborations such as the one announced today with Merck are the first phase of our commercialization plans that will subsequently include programs to enable pharmaceutical and academic users to utilize our platform internally."

About ParAllele Bioscience

ParAllele BioScience is developing and commercializing new products and technologies that will accelerate healthcare breakthroughs. By harnessing biochemical processes, ParAllele is creating highly multiplexed, compact, scalable solutions for genetics research. The company's current offerings include solutions for SNP discovery, genotyping, and variation scanning. ParAllele's customers and partners include leading pharmaceutical companies, academic research centers, life science instrumentation companies and the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The company was founded by a team of researchers from the Stanford Genome Technology Center and Uppsala University in 2001 and is presently headquartered in South San Francisco, California. Investors in the privately held company include Abingworth Management, Index Ventures, Mohr Davidow Ventures (MDV) and Versant Ventures. For more information about ParAllele, please visit the company's website at: parallelebio.com.

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