HIGH THROUGHPUT GENOMICS, INC. ANNOUNCES SERIES A FINANCING

High Throughput Genomics, Inc. (HTG, www.htgenomics.com) announced today that it has completed a Series A round of financing of $1,250,000. The funds invested by Solstice Capital, Tucson Ventures, and Village Ventures will be used to accelerate the deployment of Multiplexed Molecular Profiling (MMPÔ), the companys patented technology for high throughput analysis of DNA, mRNA, and protein expression in drug discovery, development, and diagnostics applications.

TUCSON, AZ Jan. 17, 2002 --High Throughput Genomics, Inc. (HTG, www.htgenomics.com) announced today that it has completed a Series A round of financing of $1,250,000. The funds invested by Solstice Capital, Tucson Ventures, and Village Ventures will be used to accelerate the deployment of Multiplexed Molecular Profiling (MMPÔ), the companys patented technology for high throughput analysis of DNA, mRNA, and protein expression in drug discovery, development, and diagnostics applications.

Completing this round in these difficult times is a testimony to the value and potential of this technology to speed new drugs to market," said Bruce Seligmann, Ph.D., founder and CEO. This investment represents the first investment by two local venture capital funds and their affiliates in a Tucson business, and in particular, one in the growing biotechnology sector. The investment will enable HTG to more effectively market its technology to the pharmaceutical research and diagnostics industry, develop and introduce additional products, and also allow HTG to expand its own efforts in drug discovery and diagnostics in collaboration with the Arizona Cancer Center and other leading groups in academia and industry." Between them, Solstice Capital and Tucson Ventures plan to invest approximately $40 M in Tucson and Phoenix-based businesses.

Larry Aldrich, co-managing director and founder of Tucson Ventures, noted: Our investment in HTG, which is the first investment of our newly formed fund, demonstrates our belief that biotechnology will be a major industry in Tucson and Arizona over the next decade. HTG is poised to be a world-class player in the field of providing critical tools for the drug discovery and testing needed by pharmaceutical companies and university labs. Jim Thornton, co-managing director of Tucson Ventures, noted: We directed our funds first investment into HTG to underscore how the areas of genomics and proteomics can become key economic drivers for the local and state economy over the next decade. HTG should become a major supplier of genomics-based tools that facilitate strategically important biopharmaceutical and life science research. The market size for array based technologies and consumables is $2.4 billion, according to U.S. Piper Jaffray."

Harry George, President of Solstice Capital Management Company, said, Were very pleased that Tucson-based HTG is the first Arizona investment in our second fund. Its rare to find such a complete and experienced management team with such important and proprietary technology here in Tucson. I think its interesting that the software and hardware used to measure the intensity of the biological reactions in the ArrayPlate was originally developed to find faint stars in the night sky. This shows how biotech and optics can be synergistic. Thats a big positive for Tucson."

Protected by two issued US patents and numerous additional patent filings, HTG provides access to its ArrayPlate technology as a custom service or as a ready-to-use product. The basis of the ArrayPlate is a novel microarray-based approach enabling investigators to simultanesouly test differences between the effect of different drugs on tens to hundreds of gene or protein targets in each well of an automation-friendly industry standard microplate, typically used to test only one target per well, 96 tests per plate. The ability of the ArrayPlate to test both gene targets and proteins makes this technology a universal platform for drug development and testing, a long sought after concept in the pharmaceutical industry. Besides being a universal platform, the ArrayPlate also delivers highly accurate, reproducible, and sensitive results in record time, enabling an investigator to establish, validate, and begin using an assay to measure up to 100 targets in less than four weeks. Just as important, in order to keep up with the pace of new genomics discoveries and research, ArrayPlate assays can be redirected and targets added or changed in less than 48 hours through reagent programming.

Technical performance is exceptional, providing a coefficient of variability ranging from 3 to 13% for a sample of 30,000 cells. The ArrayPlate is able to detect RNA from as few as 1,000 cells and protein at the 1pg/ml level," said Ralph Martel, Ph.D., Vice President of Multiplexed Technologies. This means that our customers can dramatically improve their throughput and quality of information by obtaining more information from smaller samples while avoiding time-consuming transfection, amplification, or isolation techniques. Further, we designed the assay to be automated using off-the-shelf systems." Dr. Martel continued, The Company contracted Tucson-based Spectral Instruments first to design and now to manufacture HTGs CCD camera-based OmixÔ Imager which is capable of measuring ArrayPlates more quickly and with greater sensitivity and resolution than conventional commercial imagers."

Our customers have used the ArrayPlateÔ technology to validate drug mechanism of action, seek improved second-generation drugs, and generally for drug discovery and diagnostic target validation, high throughput screening, quantitative dose response, specificity, safety, and metabolism profiling as well as diagnostic applications where two or more targets need to be measured against a large number of samples or conditions. Besides addressing unmet needs in target validation, HTS, and profiling, the ArrayPlateÔ enables researchers to perform in vitro and ex vivo QSAR prior to animal or human testing," added Dr. Seligmann. For more information, please visit the company website, www.htgenomics.com.

Statements in this press release that are not strictly historical are forward-looking" statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and involve a high degree of risk and uncertainty. The Companys actual results may differ materially from those projected in the forward looking statements due to risks and uncertainties that exist in the Companys operations, development efforts, and business environment, including integration of acquired businesses and technologies, the trend toward consolidation of the pharmaceutical industry, quarterly sales variability, technological advances by competitors, and other risks and uncertainties.

For more information contact Constance Junghans, Public Relations, 520-547-2827, cjunghans@htgenomics.

Company Contact:   Business Contact:      
High Throughput Genomics. Inc.   High Throughput Genomics, Inc.
Constance Junghans    Michael Cusack
Operations Manager   VP Marketing and Sales
(520) 547-2827   (520) 547-2829
cjunghans@htgenomics.com   mcusack@htgenomics.com
www.htgenomics.com

Fund Contacts:      
Tucson Ventures   Solstice Capital
Lawrence J. Aldrich   Harry A. George
larry@tucsonventures.com   hgeorge@solcap.com
520-327-5556   520-514-8000
www.tucsonventures.com   www.solcap.com