Combination of industry-leading services with unique QTRAP(R)
technology

    MONTREAL, May 28 /PRNewswire/ -- Caprion Proteomics Inc. today
announced that it is working with Applied Biosystems, a division of Life
Technologies Corporation (Nasdaq: LIFE), to accelerate the verification and
validation of protein biomarker candidates toward potential use in clinical
settings. Caprion is extending its leadership in mass spectrometry-based
biomarker services by applying QTRAP(R) technology for the development and
deployment of Multiple Reaction Monitoring (MRM) assays to advance the
clinical validation of biomarker candidates. Caprion will discuss this
scientific initiative at the Biomarker World Congress 2009 conference this
week in Philadelphia.

    Discovery of a significant number of biomarker candidates in academia
and industry has created the need to verify and validate these markers in
large-scale projects to determine the most promising for clinical
development. Caprion specializes in large-scale studies of biomarkers as a
service for pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies as well as for
government agencies. Applied Biosystems provides mass spectrometry
technology that complements Caprion's long-standing strength in biomarker
discovery to address the need to advance candidates along the biomarker
continuum.

    QTRAP technology, which was developed by the Applied Biosystems/MDS
Analytical Technologies joint venture, enables integrated quantitative and
qualitative analysis through the MIDAS workflow for fast MRM assay
development and accurate quantitative results. This makes it the technology
of choice for Caprion to expand its quantitative capabilities into this
rapidly emerging field.

    For the many instances where there are no available commercial assays
for a given set of protein biomarker candidates, the MRM technique offers a
faster and more cost-effective alternative to established enzyme-linked
immunosorbant assay (ELISA) development approaches. MRM assays can be
developed within a matter of weeks and enables the quantitative parallel
tracking of large numbers of biomarker candidates through a multiplex
high-throughput format. This technique, therefore, has the potential to
unlock significant value from the scores of genomics, proteomics and other
biomarker candidates that have not yet progressed to the validation stage.

    The mass-spectrometry-based technique can also prove advantageous in
cases where specificity is required and specific post translational
modifications or protein isoforms are critical to monitor but difficult to
differentiate by antibody techniques.

    This joint effort is another example of both companies working with
industry leaders to help fulfill the promise of proteomics for a variety of
applications, such as personalized medicine, clinical pharmacology and
diagnostics. By extending its best-in-class service for biomarker
advancement beyond the discovery phase into validation and assay
development, Caprion is building on its momentum created by its exclusive
strategic alliance on proteomic biomarkers with Covance Inc., as well as
its vast experience in the field, including work on more than 30 biomarker
studies for 20 large pharmaceutical and biotech clients, plus two large
multi-year, multi-million dollar bio-defense contracts for the NIH-NIAID.

    "With the advent of MRM assays, which we have now put into practice
with the help of QTRAP technology, we are changing the way scientists view
biomarker research by offering superior services that make it more
cost-effective and productive for pharmaceutical and biotech organizations
to not only undertake biomarker programs, but to carry them through to
their intended clinical use," said Daniel Chelsky, Chief Scientific Officer
of Caprion. "We believe that the availability and use of MRM
instrumentation and assays will expand the market for biomarker discovery,
verification and validation."

    David Hicks, Senior Director of Applied Biosystems' Pharmaceutical and
Proteomics business, added, "Our initiative for protein biomarker
verification and validation puts a priority on teaming up with other
leading scientists who are committed to the same goal of accelerating the
progress of biomarkers. The technology has evolved to the point where
working with organizations, such as Caprion, is more rapidly unlocking the
potential of protein biomarkers and helping to advance the proteomics
field."

    About Caprion Proteomics

    Caprion Proteomics is the leading provider of proteomics based services
to the pharmaceutical and biotech industries. Caprion's proprietary
proteomics discovery technology, CellCarta(R), is a gel-free, label-free
mass spectrometry platform that enables a comprehensive, quantitative and
robust measurement of the protein expression differences across large sets
of biological samples. Caprion has been providing biomarker and target
identification services since 2002, performing more than 30 large-scale
biomarker projects for pharmaceutical industry clients such as Pfizer,
Johnson & Johnson, Abbott Laboratories, Biogen Idec, Daiichi-Sankyo,
Mitsubishi-Tanabe, Wyeth, AstraZeneca, Merck, Boehringer Ingelheim, ICOS,
Bayer-Schering , EMD-Serono, Vertex, DebioPharm and Transgene. Caprion also
has been awarded two consecutive 5-year US$13 million contracts for
Biodefense proteomics research in the area of infectious diseases with the
NIH-NIAID. Caprion recently entered into a worldwide strategic marketing
and distribution alliance for biomarker services with Covance Inc. which
also involved the purchase by Covance of a minority equity stake in the
company. Caprion Proteomics, a privately-held company, is majority owned by
Great Point Partners, LP. For more information, please visit:
http://www.caprion.com.

    Copyright 2009. QTRAP is a registered trademark of Applied
Biosystems/MDS Analytical Technologies, a joint venture between Applied
Biosystems LLC and MDS Inc.



    Caprion Proteomics Inc.
    Media
    Didier Jean-Francois
    Director of Marketing and Business Development
    Caprion Proteomics Inc.,
    (514) 228-3625
    dfrancois@caprion.com

    Life Technologies
    Media
    Anthony Petrucci
    Public Relations
    508.383.7961
    anthony.petrucci@lifetech.com