Icon Genetics, Inc. announced today the establishment of a new division with headquarters based in Munich Germany. The new entity, Icon Genetics AG was established to employ the excellent scientists in Germany and Europe and to take advantage of the excellent facilities and financial opportunities in the Munich area.

"Scientific research is a worldwide endeavor, especially in agricultural biotechnology" said Yuri Gleba, CEO of Icon Genetics, Inc., "by planning now to have research facilities in Germany and in the United States we can take advantage of a number of excellent opportunities that are now available." Icon Genetics will try to hire the best scientists in an area of research. By having facilities near major universities and in attractive areas Icon will be able to provide the best to its employees and benefit financially at the same time.

Germany has implemented a number of incentive programs targeted at attracting biotechnology companies into the country, including financial incentives for venture capital companies. As a result, Germany has one of the fastest growth rates for biotechnology development in Europe. The number of companies that have laboratories established in Munich and the surrounding area are a strong testament to the attractiveness of the area.

The management board of Icon Genetics AG will be composed of Yuri Gleba, Ph.D. the CEO and co-founder of Icon Genetics, Inc. Dr. Newell Bascomb, Ph.D. President and co-founder of Icon Genetics, Inc. The supervisory board will be composed of Dr. Robert Erwin, CEO of Biosource Technologies; Prof. Dr. Ulrich Koop, cofounder of Icon Genetics will serve as Vice Chairman of the Supervisory Board, Inc. and will remain as Professor at the Institute of Botany, Munich University, and Prof. Dr. Meinhardt Zenk, Professor, University Halle-Wittenberg, Halle.
Icon Genetics, Inc., was founded in February of 1999 and is currently operating research labs in Kiev, Ukraine.

The company’s focus is to solve problems in transgene management as agricultural biotechnology enters the postgenomic era. The company strives to bring the speed and efficiency of crop engineering to that of gene discovery by developing products to address the problems of moving transgenes into elite varieties.