CapitalBio Corporation, a leading life science company based in Beijing, P.R. China, and Affymetrix Inc. (Nasdaq:AFFX) announced plans to launch an initiative to support and promote rice functional genomic research in China. Under the initiative, CapitalBio, as an Affymetrix authorized service provider in China, will provide Affymetrix GeneChip(R) Rice Genome Array services to the Chinese Rice Functional Genomic Research Consortium (CRFGRC), which consists of more than a dozen top research institutes, National Key Laboratories and universities.

Rice is the most important crop for human consumption and provides staple food for more than half of the world's population. China possesses the largest rice-producing land area in the world. Its rice output accounts for about half of the country's total grain yield. China has a long history in rice cultivation and has accumulated vast experience in rice breeding. Affymetrix GeneChip technology enables researchers to monitor the gene expression profiles across the entire rice genome. This information provides scientists with a better understanding about the plant physiology, development, genetics and evolution.

"Traditionally, China is an agricultural country, and rice research is one of the most important areas of agricultural research in China," commented Professor Yongbiao Xue, Co-Chair of CRFGRC and the Director of the Institute of Genetics and Development Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. "I am pleased that CapitalBio and Affymetrix have committed to providing more affordable rice microarrays. The results derived from the research should provide valuable information on our understanding of the rice genome and insights on how to improve rice yield and quality."

"Researchers at the CRFGRC are using GeneChip technology to perform breakthrough science that will increase our understanding of the genomic functions of rice, the world's most important crop," said Mitchell Kennedy, Vice President of Global Technical Support and General Manager of International Trading Business Unit at Affymetrix. "We are engaged with leading life science companies such as CapitalBio to accelerate genomic research and improve the quality of life."

"CapitalBio has been providing Biochip products and services to the scientific community in China and beyond, and Affymetrix' GeneChip technology has been widely adopted in life science research around the world," said David Sun, Senior Vice President of CapitalBio. "CapitalBio is delighted to provide Affymetrix' high quality GeneChip-based services to the Chinese Rice Functional Genomic Research Consortium. The Affymetrix GeneChip technology complements CapitalBio's products and services nicely and completes our total offering to the research community, including CRFGRC. We are proud to be part of this collective effort in driving advanced research on the rice genome."

In April 2005, Affymetrix and CapitalBio entered into joint R&D and commercialization programs, and announced plans to collaborate on promoting and advancing standards on microarray technologies, products and industrial processes.

CapitalBio is a leading life science company that develops and commercializes a broad range of products, including Biochip technology products, for drug discovery research, genomics, proteomics, bio-safety testing and clinical applications. Headquartered in Beijing, China, CapitalBio has rapidly evolved from a young innovative biochip developer into a comprehensive life science entity with five affiliates or subsidiaries: AVIVA Biosciences, a San Diego, California based company that develops and markets on-chip patch-clamp technologies for ion-channel studies for drug discovery researches; Chipscreen Biosciences, a Biotech company located in Shenzhen, China, for small molecular drug discovery and development; Wangdong Medical Equipment, one of the largest medical equipment companies in China that occupies about 70% of China's conventional X-Ray imaging market; and CapitalBio International and CapitalBio Hong Kong, two fully owned subsidiaries by CapitalBio Corporation, are based at San Diego, California and Hong Kong, China respectively.