Helicos BioSciences Names Steve Lombardi Senior Vice President of Marketing

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.--June 14, 2006--Helicos BioSciences, a pioneer in high-speed, high-sensitivity sequencing, today announced that it has named longtime biotechnology executive Steve Lombardi as Senior Vice President of Marketing.

Stanley N. Lapidus, President and CEO of Helicos, said, "We're delighted to have a well-known industry leader like Steve Lombardi on our executive team. Steve has a matchless 27-year track record of success in our extremely challenging market, and we're looking forward to his experience and insights having a major impact on our business as we prepare our product launch."

"I'm very pleased to become part of the Helicos team and contribute to the innovation that Helicos is poised to bring to market," said Lombardi. "The scientific and business promise of True Single Molecule Sequencing is about to be realized, and to be 'present at the creation' of this groundbreaking new generation of sequencing technology is a unique and fascinating opportunity."

Lombardi joins Helicos after several years as a Senior Vice President at Affymetrix, overseeing in turn Corporate Development, Product R&D and Marketing, and Corporate Marketing between 2002 and 2006. Lombardi's responsibilities at Affymetrix ranged from leading the company's corporate planning efforts and business development, to executing product development and research, to directing the company's strategic and product marketing efforts.

Prior to Affymetrix, Lombardi worked for 16 years at Applied Biosystems, a division of Applera. At Applied Biosystems, Lombardi worked in various business roles as a marketing manager and then as an executive. From 1989 to 1998, Lombardi managed AB's DNA sequencing and genetic analysis business. He then managed the company's Americas' business and prior to his departure, was Senior Vice President of Applications R&D and Strategic Marketing.

About tSMS(TM)

tSMS(TM) is a technique that enables researchers to rapidly and accurately sequence individual molecules of DNA and RNA. This allows direct interrogation of the single molecule as opposed to an amplified population of molecules. tSMS(TM) holds enormous potential for elucidating the gamut of genetic aberrations in oncology, through the ability to serve as a universal detection system across a wide variety of applications for both DNA and RNA.

An example of some of the applications tSMS(TM) will enable are whole tumor resequencing, quantitative transcriptional profiling, genome wide methylation studies, and candidate gene resequencing.

The advantages of tSMS(TM) over amplified molecule sequencing include: no PCR bias, no errors introduced by amplification, and no dephasing issues commonly present in amplified molecule sequencing. In addition, tSMS(TM) promises the highest possible throughput and enables reagent cost savings on the order of 1,000 times less than Sanger sequencing.

About Helicos BioSciences

Helicos BioSciences Corporation began operations in February 2004, and has raised $67 million from a top-tier investment consortium to date. Helicos is developing instruments and reagents for the high-speed sequencing of DNA and RNA with the highest possible sensitivity. The Helicos technology, based on pioneering research of Dr. Stephen Quake of Stanford University, is covered by a broad portfolio of granted and filed patents. The company commenced early-access collaborations in 2006 to generate ground breaking scientific publications and start creating revenue, while planning to launch its first commercial systems in 2007.

For more information, please visit our web site at www.helicosbio.com.