FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BEAD-BASED ULTRA-HTS UP TO 1,000,000 COMPOUNDS/DAY

Holliston, MA, June 17, 2002 -- Union Biometrica's COPAS systems screen bead based compound libraries in combination with fluorescently labelled target proteins to enable ultra high speed binding assays of up to one million compounds/day. The COPAS system is able to specifically detect and sort out beads (sized 50 to 500 micron) bound with a standard green, yellow, or red fluorescent label from a large population of un-labelled beads.

The hits can be individually dispensed into microtiter plates for hit validation retesting and subsequent compound analysis. In addition, structure analysis need only be done on "hits", not on the entire library. This non-invasive assay technology even allows for re-use of the bead library for consecutive screening campaigns, although over successive screens the library will become depleted. Using non-destructive compound analysis, like NMR, the positive beads can be reused for later campaigns.

The traditional assay done in 384 well plates requires 20 micro-liters for each compound, or 20 liters for one million compounds. This process requires a large amount of what in many cases is a "rare / valuable" protein as well as large quantities of expensive reagents. The COPAS bead-based incubation requires only 10-50 ml total for one million compounds, thereby reducing total assay volumes from 20 liters to 20 mL, resulting in significantly reduced quantities of the target protein and assay reagents required and permitting a one million compound library can be screened with this method routinely in 1-2 days.

About Union Biometrica

Union Biometrica is the pioneer in the development, manufacture, and distribution of high throughput equipment used for automated analysis, sorting, and dispensing of bead based HTS assays of (combi-chem) libraries as well as small model organisms (such as C. elegans, Drosophila, and D. rerio) and small seeds. Union Biometrica's proprietary COPAS systems are helping to accelerate research in application areas such as genetic and compound screening, functional genomics, target identification / validation, and in vivo toxicology HTS. Systems are available in a variety of size-optimized platforms and are capable of sorting objects by length, optical density and multiple channels of fluorescence. Union Biometrica also offers a wide range of contract biological services, assay development, genetic and compound screens, and transgenic services. For more information, please visit www.unionbio.com.

Union Biometrica is a Harvard Bioscience company (Nasdaq HBIO), a global developer, manufacturer and marketer of innovative, enabling tools in drug discovery research at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, universities, and government laboratories. For more information on Harvard Bioscience, please visit www.harvardbioscience.com

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