Cambridge, MA - Aug 20, 2009 - Helicos BioSciences Corporation (NASDAQ: HLCS), a life science company focused on innovative genetic analysis technologies, today announced the placement of a Helicos(TM) Genetic Analysis System at the Ontario Institute for Cancer Research (OICR) with Drs. Tom Hudson and John McPherson.

"We are very excited to be working with such a distinguished institution on the application of our technology to the study of cancer genomics" 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.

"The translational cancer research we are conducting at our center can benefit greatly from the advantages of single molecule sequencing" stated Tom Hudson, President and Scientific Director of the OICR. "We hope to use this technology for the unbiased and comprehensive characterization of tumor samples to ultimately lead to discoveries that have a clinical impact."