HAYWARD, Calif. & CAMBRIDGE, England & IPSWICH, Mass. -- (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Aug. 1, 2006 -- Solexa, Inc. (Nasdaq:SLXA) today announced that it has reached an agreement with New England Biolabs Inc. (NEB), a leading supplier of enzymes and technologies to the life science market, for NEB to provide Solexa with certain key enzymes and other reagents for use with the Solexa Genome Analysis System. Under the terms of this agreement, NEB will also manufacture Solexa's proprietary sequencing-by-synthesis polymerase. Financial terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

With systems already installed at leading institutes, Solexa is commercializing a next-generation sequencing technology which has the potential to produce 100-fold more bases per run, at less than 1% the cost, than conventional technologies. The Solexa Genome Analysis System will enable researchers to tackle a broad range of applications including whole-genome and candidate region sequencing, digital expression profiling, and small RNA discovery and analysis.

"Striking strategic partnerships with leading life science companies has been a critical component of our strategy for commercial-scale manufacture of reagents and enzymes," stated Brock Siegel, chief operating officer of Solexa. "In New England Biolabs we have found a partner whose scientific and manufacturing capabilities and reputation are well established and unsurpassed. With this agreement in place, we and our customers can be confident that enzymes critical to our process, including proprietary Solexa enzymes, will be supplied by a world class-company known for its expertise in this domain."

For 30 years, NEB's reagents have set the standard for quality and value, fulfilling the needs of scientists from the individual researcher through to the OEM market. NEB's OEM partners benefit from its ability to combine R & D and manufacturing expertise for reagent optimization, customization and platform integration.

"Having a strong relationship with a leader in next-generation sequencing technologies is of great value to NEB, allowing us to contribute to an area which has the potential to change both biological research and the practice of human medicine," stated Dr. Fiona Stewart, Business Development Manager at New England Biolabs. "We are very pleased that our expertise in enzyme technology and reagent manufacturing has been recognized by Solexa."

About Solexa

Solexa, Inc. is developing and commercializing the Solexa Genome Analysis System, which will be used to perform a range of analyses including whole genome resequencing, gene expression profiling and small-RNA analysis. Solexa expects its first-generation instrument to generate over a billion bases of DNA sequence per run and to enable whole genome resequencing below $100,000 per sample, making it the first platform to reach this important milestone. Solexa's longer-term goal is to reduce the cost of human re-sequencing to a few thousand dollars for use in a wide range of applications from basic research through clinical diagnostics. For further information, please visit www.solexa.com.

About New England Biolabs

New England Biolabs leads the industry in the discovery and production of enzymes for life science applications. Established in the mid-1970's, New England Biolabs now offers the largest selection of recombinant and native enzymes for DNA work, genomics and proteomics. NEB also supplies protein expression systems, competent cells and transfection reagents. New England Biolabs is a privately held company headquartered in Ipswich, MA and has extensive worldwide distribution through a network of exclusive distributors, agents and four subsidiaries located in Canada, China, Germany and the UK. For more information about New England Biolabs visit www.neb.com.

Solexa Safe-Harbor

This press release contains "forward-looking" statements, including statements related to the current views of Solexa management as to intellectual property matters, future products, product development, commercialization of the Company's novel genetic analysis technology, and the expansion and success of Solexa's commercial application of its genomics technologies. Any statements contained in this press release that are not statements of historical fact may be deemed to be forward-looking statements. Words such as "believes," "anticipates," "plans," "predicts," "expects," "envisions," "hopes," "estimates," "intends," "will," "continue," "may," "potential," "should," "confident," "could" and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking statements. There can be no assurance that such expectations of any of the forward-looking statements will prove to be correct, and actual results could differ materially from those projected or assumed in the forward-looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause the results of Solexa to differ materially from those indicated by these forward-looking statements including, among others, risks detailed from time to time in the Company's SEC reports, including its Annual Report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2005 and its Quarterly Report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended March 31, 2006. Solexa does not undertake any obligation to update forward-looking statements.

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SOURCE: Solexa, Inc.