Commercial momentum building for world's first single molecule sequencer

Cambridge, MA - Aug 04, 2009 - Helicos BioSciences Corporation (NASDAQ: HLCS), a life science company focused on innovative genetic analysis technologies, today announced the sale of a Helicos(TM) Genetic Analysis System to an undisclosed biotechnology company in the Northeast.

"This sale marks an important milestone in our development as a commercial organization, and is an indication of the tremendous interest we are seeing from customers for our revolutionary technology," stated Ron Lowy, Helicos Chief Executive Officer.

The Helicos Genetic Analysis System is the world's first and only commercially available, single molecule sequencing technology, and enables scientists to conduct revolutionary studies in the fields of genome biology, cancer research, common diseases, and microbiology without DNA ligation or amplification. Genetic analysis with Helicos's technology eliminates the biases, complexity and errors introduced by DNA amplification, requires minute amounts of starting material, and provides the most direct and accurate view of biological samples.

"We expect that this commercial momentum and our first-mover advantage, combined with further validation of our technology in recent peer-reviewed publications, will drive wider adoption in the coming months," added Lowy.