Helicos BioSciences to install Single Molecule and Genetic Analysis Systems at SLI and Stanford University

Helicos BioSciences Corporation today announced the completion of the sale of a Helicos® Single Molecule System to the St. Laurent Institute (SLI). The installation of the system is expected to be completed in early February.

“As a breakthrough in the state of the art for exploring the coding and non-coding transcriptome, Helicos offers the key to unravel the genomic complexity of human chronic diseases. We are very excited to bring the power of Helicos to bear on our urgent biological questions.”

“As a breakthrough in the state of the art for exploring the coding and non-coding transcriptome, Helicos offers the key to unravel the genomic complexity of human chronic diseases. We are very excited to bring the power of Helicos to bear on our urgent biological questions.” stated Georges St. Laurent, Scientific Director of the institute.

The agreement with SLI was previously announced in early 2009. The contractual terms were subsequently revised by Helicos to support SLI with a site for installation.

The Company also announced an agreement to install a second Helicos^® Genetic Analysis System at Stanford University. This second system is expected to come on-line in March to meet the growing demand for access to Helicos’ True Single Molecule Sequencing technology.

“We are very pleased to add the Saint Laurent Institute to the growing number of leading institutions using the Helicos® Single Molecule System to generate breakthrough discoveries. It is becoming clear to many leading research institutions that single molecule genetic analysis is leading to new answers to scientific questions that could only be dreamed of before” stated Ron Lowy, Helicos Chief Executive Officer.

“We are also excited about continued acceleration of experiments at a number of current customers which we expect will lead to the addition of multiple units at those sites. We anticipate this trend will continue going forward” said Lowy.

The Helicos Genetic Analysis System is the world’s first and only commercially available, single molecule sequencing technology, and enables scientists to conduct revolutionary studies to understand genome biology and regulation. Genetic analysis with Helicos’ technology eliminates the biases, complexity and errors introduced by DNA amplification, requires minute amounts of starting material, is amenable to the analysis of degraded nucleic acids, and provides the most quantitatively accurate view of biological samples.