Briefs

Burlington, MA - June 12, 2002 - As part of the continuing quest to analyze the human genome, life sciences discovery pioneer AnVil, Inc. today announced a collaboration with Applied Biosystems Group (NYSE: ABI), an Applera Corporation business, to explore the final frontier of genomics - verifying the existence of "dark genes" predicted by computers, but whose presence have not yet been confirmed.

The "Dark Side" of the genome consists of those genes hidden away in the "dark", unexplored recesses of human chromosomes, and which have very few, if any, traces of evidence to confirm their existence. The number of "dark genes" ranges between 20-60% of unconfirmed genes in each of the 22 human chromosomes. The most elusive of the "dark genes," those that have almost zero traces of evidence, ranges between 10-20%.

Working from the Celera Genomics' human genome DNA sequence, Applied Biosystems is gathering multiple lines of experimental data to confirm the prediction of so-called "dark side" human genes. In this effort, AnVil is expected to apply its analytical and high-dimensional visualization technologies to the challenge of tracking down these unknown genes, whose discovery could contribute greatly to further understanding of the genome.

See www.anvilinfo.com