Briefs

RALEIGH, N.C--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 5, 2001--Molecular Mining
Corporation (MMC) today announced a collaborative agreement with
NextGen Sciences Ltd. in the area of protein biochips.

Molecular Mining Corporation (MMC) and NextGen Sciences Ltd. (NextGen)
have agreed to collaborate in the area of protein biochips. The scope
of the collaborative agreement adapts the companies' respective
products for optimal integration and productivity and co-promotes
their products.

NextGen has organized a Consortium from industry and academia that
includes major players in Disposables, Fluidics, LIMS Systems and Data
Mining to take an end-to-end approach to fabricating and selling
protein biochips for important applications in Life Science. Other
consortium members include Nunc A/S, Avidity, Harvard Biosciences and
Thermo LabSystems.

Adaptation of Molecular Mining Corporation's GeneLinker gene
expression analysis software family will enable the use of the
Consortium's offerings in the emerging protein biochip arena. This is
made possible by MMC's experience gained with DNA biochips and
NextGen's experience in the development and production of protein
biochips. This collaboration will give MMC important information
regarding the future needs for protein biochip data mining in the
protein biochip field. NextGen and its academic partner, the
University of Cambridge, will use the MMC GeneLinker software system
in-house to run and support NextGen studies.

``The combination of high performance analysis and exploratory value
of our gene expression analysis software, and our unparalleled easy
upgrade path to more sophisticated solutions for inference of
relationships between genes and predictive in silico models yields a
winning combination for NextGen and MMC customers,'' states Dr. Roland
Somogyi, MMC's Chief Scientific Officer.

``We expect protein biochip users to see this collaboration as the
first step in a long relationship with NextGen and MMC in the emerging
field of protein biochip data mining,'' said NextGen Sciences' CEO,
Dr. Kevin Auton. ``Managing the data from these systems is a nightmare
unless you have your information systems together from the start.''

Molecular Mining Corporation specializes in the exploration, inference
and prediction of molecular networks derived from gene expression,
proteomics and SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms) data, and the
application of these network models to diagnostic and drug target
identification, predictive toxicology and in silico drug
screening. Contact: info@molecularmining.com, www.molecularmining.com.