Slater Fund Invests in Genome Corp.

New company formed to build DNA sequencing “factory” of the future obtains $250,000 in seed funding

Providence, R.I., September 25, 2007 — The Slater Technology Fund today announced an investment in Genome Corp., a new venture dedicated to developing and commercializing the world’s most cost-effective DNA sequencing technology. Based in Providence, R.I., Genome Corp. aims to become a leading player in the emergence of personalized medicine based upon its development of proprietary technologies for sequencing and analyzing the genomes of individuals. Such information has previously been inaccessible to researchers and clinicians due to its prohibitively high cost.

Co-founded by President and CSO Kevin M. Ulmer, Ph.D., the company is developing a DNA sequencing technology referred to as Massively-Parallel Sanger Sequencing. Combining the proven advantages of traditional Sanger sequencing, which has been used to generate well over 99% of the DNA sequence data deposited in GenBank® over the past 25 years, with techniques leveraging the latest advances in single-molecule biochemistry, Massively-Parallel Sanger Sequencing technology is expected to greatly accelerate the speed and significantly reduce the cost of genomic sequencing.

A scientist and serial entrepreneur whose career has included significant immersion in the development and application of next generation DNA sequencing technologies, Dr. Ulmer has long argued that the promise of genomic medicine will only be realized with further dramatic improvements in the speed and cost of DNA sequencing, one of the fundamentally enabling tools of the biotechnology revolution.

In 1987, Dr. Ulmer founded SEQ LTD, the first of the single-molecule sequencing ventures, later acquired by Amersham Biosciences, now GE Healthcare. In 1995, Dr. Ulmer collaborated with Stan Lapidus in the formation of Exact Sciences Corp. (NASDAQ: EXAS), the leader in DNA-based colorectal screening technology. Dr. Ulmer served on the Scientific Advisory Board of Exact from 1996-2000 and was a co-inventor on the company’s initial patents. He continued to consult for Exact in 2001 on “digital PCR” technology for the routine amplification of single DNA molecules. In 1997, Dr. Ulmer founded Pavonis Inc., a venture-backed genomics startup applying leading edge DNA analysis to human morphology and appearance traits. In 2003, Dr. Ulmer consulted for Flagship Ventures on the formation of a new single-molecule sequencing company based on the academic work of a former SEQ consultant, Prof. Stephen Quake, now at Stanford University. Dr. Ulmer then served through 2004 as a full-time consulting scientist to the new venture, Helicos BioSciences Corp. (NASDAQ: HLCS) to help develop what has emerged as the only direct single-molecule sequencing technology so far demonstrated.

In parallel, Dr. Ulmer has pursued the development of Massively-Parallel Sanger Sequencing technology on an independent basis. In 2007, Dr. Ulmer and Slater agreed to collaborate in the formation of Genome Corp., to which Dr. Ulmer contributed intellectual property and related assets, and Slater committed $250,000 in initial seed capital. Genome Corp. reunites three former senior executives of SEQ LTD. The board of directors of the new company, in addition to Dr. Ulmer, includes Richard G. Horan, who serves as chairman, and Jay K. Trautman, vice president of Discovery Research and Technologies at Cytokinetics Inc. (NASDAQ: CYTK).

“Genome Corp. represents the kind of big idea and bold ambition for which we believe the Slater Fund is uniquely suited,” said Richard G. Horan, senior managing director of the Slater Technology Fund. “Led by a serial entrepreneur with a career of experience being brought to bear, we look to engaging some of the best and brightest genome scientists to address some of the most exciting unsolved problems in biotechnology today.”

About Slater Technology Fund
The Slater Technology Fund is a state-backed venture capital fund that invests in new companies committed to basing and building their businesses in Rhode Island. Slater focuses its resources on the support of entrepreneurs who have the vision, leadership and commitment to build substantial commercial enterprises. Slater typically invests at the inception stage in the development of a new venture, often based upon ideas and technologies originating in academic institutions and/or government research laboratories located within the region. In most cases, investments are premised upon the possibility of raising substantial follow-on financing, from venture capital investors or from strategic partners, with a view toward accelerating the generation of significant numbers of high-value, high-wage jobs over the intermediate to longer-term. For more information, visit www.slaterfund.com.

For More Information
Laura Nelson
SVM Public Relations
(401) 490-9700
laura.nelson@svmpr.com