Cambridge, MA - Mar 16, 2009 - Helicos BioSciences (Nasdaq:HLCS) announced today that Patrice Milos, PhD, the company's Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, will be a featured speaker at the CHI Next Generation Sequencing, Platforms and Progress conference in San Diego, CA on Tuesday, March 17. Dr. Milos will present an update of the company's progress and provide insight into the growing list of scientific applications that can be performed using the Helicos(TM) Genetic Analysis Platform.

Based on the company's proprietary True Single Molecule Sequencing (tSMS)(TM) technology, the platform is ideally suited for researchers looking to perform in-depth genome biology experiments. Dr. Milos will provide the first data that benefits from the combination of the company's 2^nd generation single molecule sequencing chemistry and version 2 software suite. Together, these improvements provide sequencing performance in the range of 600 to 800 million sequence reads of average length ~33 bases, extending to 55 bases. With a throughput of ~160 million bases per hour, each HeliScope(TM) Sequencer run provides 20 to 30 billion bases of usable output.

This performance, combined with the technology's simple, amplification-free sample preparation methods, small sample requirements and unrivaled sequencing and quantitative accuracy, enables a wide range of applications for genomic researchers. For the first time, Dr. Milos will present HeliScope Sequencer data utilizing Helicos's unique prep-free paired reads method applied to genomic samples including bacterial DNA, human transcriptome and human genomic DNA. In addition, Dr. Milos will present data on applications that combine sequence information with quantitative measurements to understand genome biology including transcriptome measurements, copy number variation and ChIP-sequencing. With the platform's ability to sequence a massive number of reads in 50 individual samples in parallel, these applications can be performed in a high throughput manner, at costs below those of competing next-generation sequencing approaches and even standard microarrays.

Summary information on these and other applications is now available on the company's recently updated web site at www.helicosbio.com.