BD and Cellular Research Announce Co-marketing Efforts for Single-Cell Sequencing

SAN JOSE, Calif., Feb. 26, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- BD Life Sciences, a segment of BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company) (NYSE: BDX), a leading global medical technology company, and Cellular Research, an innovative company focused on enabling high-resolution biology, today announced that they will be jointly promoting their unique solutions for highly multiplexed cell isolation and single-cell gene expression analysis.

The companies are promoting BD's powerful BD FACS™ single-cell sorting instrumentation and software with Cellular Research's Precise™ assays based on Molecular Indexing™ technology to offer customers an integrated workflow for measuring both nucleic acid and protein expression in cellular subtypes.

"We believe that this combination of unique capabilities, Molecular Indexing of genetic markers from Cellular Research and single-cell sorting using protein markers from BD, will significantly increase the ability to identify and analyze cell populations for basic and clinical research," said Stephen Fodor, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer of Cellular Research.

Cellular Research has developed Precise, a highly multiplexed molecular and sample barcoding technology, whereby each transcript in each plated cell is uniquely barcoded during incorporation into one sequencing library. Precise encoding plates can also be multiplexed, enabling up to 4,608 single cells to be prepared into one single sequencing library and reaction.

The combined workflow enables cells to be individually sorted into 96- or 384- well Precise encoding plates using the BD FACS™ instruments and software. "Today's announcement represents an exciting step forward for researchers engaged in single-cell genomic analysis," said Claude Dartiguelongue, Worldwide President, BD Biosciences. "The efficiency of identifying and isolating single cells greatly increases the throughput of cells available for transcriptome analysis, creating the potential, now within reach of investigators, to analyze gene expression targets in many thousands of individual cells."

Initial results and findings will be presented during the 16^th annual Advances in Genome Biology and Technology (AGBT) meeting held in Marco Island, Florida, February 25-28. The presentation is titled: "A Comprehensive High Throughput Single Cell Analysis Workflow Combining Proteomic and Genomic Information:  Flow sorting, single cell tagging, molecular barcoding, library preparation, and sequencing analysis."

About BD
BD is a leading medical technology company that partners with customers and stakeholders to address many of the world's most pressing and evolving health needs. Our innovative solutions are focused on improving drug delivery, enhancing the diagnosis of infectious diseases and cancers, supporting the management of diabetes and advancing cellular research. We are more than 30,000 associates in 50 countries who strive to fulfill our purpose of "Helping all people live healthy lives" by advancing the quality, accessibility, safety and affordability of healthcare around the world. For more information, please visit www.bd.com.

About Cellular Research
Cellular Research, Inc. is a biotechnology research and development company founded by innovators from Silicon Valley and Stanford University.  Our mission is to develop and commercialize a new generation of highly sensitive life science technologies and products.  In addition to introducing a portfolio of research products, the Company has an active partnership program with pharmaceutical and diagnostics companies advancing clinical applications. For more information, please visit http://www.cellular-research.com/.

Forward-Looking Statements
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, including statements relating to the planned joint collaboration activities between Cellular Research Inc. and BD Life Sciences – Biosciences, and the capabilities anticipated to be provided by the jointly developed workflows. Forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially and reported results should not be considered as an indication of future performance. These risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to: risks associated with keeping pace with rapidly changing technology and customer requirements; risks that new market opportunities may not develop as quickly as expected; risks associated with competition in marketing and selling products; and other risks set forth in BD's and Cellular Research Inc. respective filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. These forward-looking statements speak only as of the date hereof. BD and Cellular Research, Inc. disclaim any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Trademarks
BD, BD Logo and BD FACS are trademarks of Becton, Dickinson and Company.
Cellular Research, Cellular Research Logo, Precise and Molecular Indexing are trademarks of Cellular Research, Inc.

Contact:

BD
Matthew Coppola
Public Relations
(201) 847-7370
Matthew_R_Coppola@bd.com

Cellular Research
Martin Pieprzyk
Marketing Department
Mpieprzyk@cellular-research.com

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SOURCE BD (Becton, Dickinson and Company)