June 12, 2008

Oxford gene technology joins EuroSystem Consortium

BY Dr. Keith J. Kaplan

Oxford, UK – May 21, 2008 – Oxford Gene Technology (OGT) is delighted to announce its
participation in the recently formed EuroSyStem Consortium, a framework V11 partnership
which aims to drive the generation of new knowledge about the characteristics of normal and
abnormal stem cells. The consortium brings together a network of biological and
computational expertise from leading international researchers and businesses throughout
Europe. It will provide facilities, resources and training to promote interaction throughout the
stem cell community, and to accelerate research progress.

OGT’s role in the consortium will be to develop its single cell technology for quantitative
determination of gene expression in single cells, in order to examine the dynamic range of
gene expression.

This technology will then be applied to two separate cell systems in the consortium:
erythropoetic stem cells with Professor Tariq Enver’s group at the MRC Molecular
Haematology Unit at Oxford, and mouse embryonic stem cells with Professor Austin Smith’s
group at the Wellcome Trust Centre for Stem Cell Research, Cambridge.

Professor Austin Smith, Coordinator of EuroSyStem said, “Increased possibilities for
analysing and understanding expression events in single cells is a fundamental breakthrough
that will accelerate progress in basic and applied research relating to stem cells. Ultimately
this progress could lead to successful regenerative medicine, and along the journey we
envision improved drug development processes, enhanced disease modelling, and earlier
diagnosis of specific diseases.”

Dr John Anson, Research and Development Director at OGT said, “No current method allows
easy preparation and analysis of single cell gene expression levels. We are confident that our
single cell technology, with its unique ‘cell population census’ approach, will revolutionise
gene expression analysis, and we are excited to be given the opportunity to develop this
technology for the EuroSyStem Consortium.”

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