Invitrogen Awarded Food Safety Contract at 2008 Summer Olympic Games

Wednesday August 29 12:00 PM

Invitrogen Corporation (NASDAQ:IVGN), a provider of essential life science technologies for research, production and diagnostics, has been awarded a contract to provide kits for detecting possible E. coli O157 contamination in food at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China. The monitoring program, based on World Health Organization food standards, is conducted by the Beijing Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Olympic Food Safety program.

E. coli 0157:H7 can produce a powerful toxin that can cause severe illness and even death in those who ingest it. Invitrogen's highly sensitive testing kits use Dynabeads(R) anti-E. coli O157 processes to capture the bacteria and reliably isolate the colonies from contaminated food for easy detection. China's National CDC has sponsored a food safety network for several years using Dynabeads(R) technology.

"Bacteria, particularly E. coli, can present a serious threat to public health at a major global event such as the Olympics," said Paul Kinnon, Vice President of Applied Market at Invitrogen. "Invitrogen's Dynabeads(R) are a reliable, accurate solution for keeping food safe from dangerous bacteria and a perfect example of how technologies developed to further basic research can also be used to protect what we eat and drink."

This contract represents the second time Invitrogen products have been selected for food and environmental safety testing in the Olympic Games. Invitrogen's PathAlert(TM) was selected to monitor Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of the plague, at the Torino Winter Games in 2006.

About Invitrogen

Invitrogen Corporation (NASDAQ:IVGN) provides products and services that support academic and government research institutions and pharmaceutical and biotech companies worldwide in their efforts to improve the human condition. The company provides essential life science technologies for disease research, drug discovery, and commercial bioproduction. Invitrogen's own research and development efforts are focused on breakthrough innovation in all major areas of biological discovery including functional genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics and cell biology -- placing Invitrogen's products in nearly every major laboratory in the world. Founded in 1987, Invitrogen is headquartered in Carlsbad, California, and conducts business in more than 70 countries around the world. The company is celebrating 20 years of accelerating scientific discovery. Invitrogen globally employs approximately 4,300 scientists and other professionals and had revenues of more than $1.15 billion in 2006. For more information, visit www.invitrogen.com.

Safe Harbor Statement

Certain statements contained in this press release are considered "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, and it is Invitrogen's intent that such statements be protected by the safe harbor created thereby. Forward-looking statements include, but are not limited to, those regarding: 1) Invitrogen's highly sensitive testing kits use Dynabeads(R) anti-E. coli O157 processes to capture the bacteria and reliably isolate the colonies from contaminated food for easy detection; 2) Invitrogen's Dynabeads(R) are a reliable, accurate solution for keeping food safe from dangerous bacteria and a perfect example of how technologies developed to further basic research can also be used to protect what we eat and drink. Such forward-looking statements are subject to a number of risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the risks: a) the kits may not detect possible E. coli O157 contamination in food at the 2008 Summer Olympic Games in Beijing, China, as well as other risks and uncertainties detailed from time to time in Invitrogen's Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

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