Pacific Biosciences Begins Shipments of Commercial PacBio RS Systems

World’s First Single Molecule, Real-Time System Inaugurates New Era

of Third Generation DNA Sequencing

MENLO PARK, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–

Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc. (NASDAQ: PACB) today announced

it is now shipping commercial PacBio RS systems. The release of

the first “third generation” sequencing product is expected to

immediately expand the applications of DNA sequencing in fields such as

cancer research, pathogen detection, and agriculture. These commercial

shipments are following a successful early access program conducted with

eleven leading sequencing customers around the world.

The PacBio RS is a revolutionary DNA sequencing system that

incorporates novel, single molecule sequencing techniques and advanced

analytics to reveal biology in real time. The system delivers

unprecedented sequence readlengths – over a thousand DNA bases on

average. And unlike “second generation” systems on the market today that

typically take over one week to deliver results, the PacBio RS

allows customers to obtain results in less than a day.

The first commercial units are being shipped to sites in North America

and Europe that include biotechnology companies, commercial service

providers, governmental institutions, and academic laboratories. The

National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center (NBACC),

operated by the Battelle National Biodefense Institute for the U.S.

Department of Homeland Security, is among the first customers to receive

the new PacBio RS system.

Nick Bergman, Ph.D., NBACC Genomics group leader, commented: “The PacBio RS

system is a major expansion of our sequencing repertoire here at NBACC,

and the long readlengths and flexibility in throughput give us a lot of

new options for characterizing microbial pathogens. We’re very excited

to start using it in a wide range of applications.”

The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute was one of the eleven early access

sites for the PacBio RS that was recently upgraded to the

commercial hardware specifications. Harold Swerdlow, Ph.D., Head of

Sequencing Technology, commented: “To maintain our position at the

forefront of genomics, we explore new opportunities in genome

sequencing. We intend to use the PacBio RS to improve pathogen de

novo assemblies, to increase the coverage of sequence information

from organisms like the malaria parasite or Mycobacterium tuberculosis

at the extremes of AT/GC representation, and in the future, to explore

epigenetics via direct detection of methylated sites.”

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory was also an early access customer, and is

also receiving one of the first new commercial systems. “We are

tremendously excited about the value of long reads for a variety of

projects ranging from understanding structural variation in the human

genome that contributes to disease, to de novo sequencing of

plant genomes,” said W. Richard McCombie, Ph.D.

Hugh Martin, Chairman and CEO of Pacific Biosciences, commented: “We

would like to thank our early access customers for their terrific

support and contributions to that program, and welcome our new customers

to the dawn of the era of third generation sequencing. We are incredibly

proud of the achievements that have led up to the development of a truly

transformative product that now has global demand from a number of

industry sectors, and a growing list of applications.”

For more information, please visit www.pacificbiosciences.com.

Photos, videos and animations are available at https://www.pacificbiosciences.com/news_and_events/mediakit.

You can also follow the company on Twitter www.twitter.com/PacBio.

About Pacific Biosciences

Pacific Biosciences’ mission is to transform the way humankind acquires,

processes and interprets data from living systems through the design,

development and commercialization of innovative tools for biological

research. The company has developed a novel approach to studying the

synthesis and regulation of DNA, RNA and proteins. Combining recent

advances in nanofabrication, biochemistry, molecular biology, surface

chemistry and optics, Pacific Biosciences has created a powerful

technology platform called single molecule, real-time, or SMRT™,

technology. SMRT technology enables real-time analysis of biomolecules

with single molecule resolution, which has the potential to transform

the understanding of biological systems by providing a window into these

systems that has not previously been open for scientific study.

This press release contains forward-looking statements. Forward-looking

statements may contain words such as “believe,” “may,” “estimate,”

“anticipate,” “continue,” “intend,” “expect,” “plan,” the negative of

these terms, or other similar expressions, and include the assumptions

that underlie such statements. These statements are subject to known and

unknown risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to

differ materially from those expressed or implied by such statements,

including but not limited to risks discussed from time to time in

documents we have filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission,

including the risks identified under the section captioned “Risk

Factors” in our recently filed Annual Report on Form 10-K. All

forward-looking statements are based on management’s estimates,

projections and assumptions as of the date hereof. We undertake no

obligation to update any forward-looking statements.

Photos/Multimedia Gallery Available: https://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/mmg.cgi?eid=6695639&lang=en

For Pacific BiosciencesNicole Litchfield, 415-793-6468 (Media)
nicole@bioscribe.com
or
Pacific

BiosciencesTrevin Rard, 650-521-8450 (Investors)
ir@pacificbiosciences.com

Source: Pacific Biosciences of California, Inc.

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