IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Atto Bioscience Launches Biosensor Technology for GPCR Drug Screening

Rockville, MD - October 29, 2001 - Atto BioScience, Inc. (www.atto.com) announces that it has completed its first round of equity financing, raising $3 million from investors led by Emerging Technology Partners, LLC , along with other individuals from the biotech community, company founders and management. Atto Bioscience was assisted by Hogan & Hartson LLP in completing this financing transaction. Atto Bioscience (formerly known as Atto Instruments), is a Maryland based biotechnology company that develops, manufactures and markets break-through products enabling real-time kinetic and structural analysis of biological reactions taking place in individual living cells. In addition to the new funding, the founders of the company, Gary Brooker, Ph.D. and Jeff Brooker, have been joined by a new executive team including President and CEO - Derek Woods, Ph.D.; Vice President of Research and Development - Joel Jessee; and Chief Financial Officer - Gloria Zak. Derek, Joel and Gloria all joined Atto from Invitrogen/Life Technologies where they held senior management positions. "We are quite excited with this first round of financing in an otherwise difficult market because it validates our vision to become the preeminent live cell imaging company, as well as producer of reagent consumables and services," stated Derek Woods. He continued, "the make-up of the investor group in our early round funding shows a strong commitment to our company, our technology, and the recognition of the market potential for our products." The new capital will support build-up of the sales and marketing organization and completion of development and commercialization of the companyÕs first high throughput single cell imaging system (targeted for launch later this year). This system was developed in collaboration with a major pharmaceutical company. In addition, the company plans to expand its product offering from instruments to include reagent consumables and services. The target markets for Atto BioScienceÕs products are basic discovery research, functional genomics, pharmaceutical drug discovery, toxicology (pharmaceutical and environmental) and diagnostics. Atto is marketing its products worldwide through a combination of direct sales and specialized distributors."The Atto BioScience imaging technology platform can be applied to the frontier of truly ÔfunctionalÕ genomics," says Doug Hanahan, Professor of Biochemistry, University of California San Francisco Medical Center. Hanahan continued, "This platform will enhance discovery research as cellular responses to gene expression can be monitored in sensitive high throughput assays."Company founder Gary Brooker said "With recent developments in sequencing the human genome, Atto BioScience products will play a key role in helping the scientific community learn more about these genes by studying, in living cells, how and where they are expressed in the cell and how they are functioning."

About Atto Bioscience, Inc.

Atto Bioscience, Inc. is a fully integrated life science company applying proprietary single cell imaging and assay technologies to accelerate pharmaceutical drug discovery/development, toxicology, diagnostics, and functional genomics. Atto brings together several core capabilities including real-time confocal 3D live-cell imaging, kinetic single cell monitoring, software design, novel assay development, automation and manufacturing. Founded in 1985, Atto Bioscience, formerly Atto Instruments, is headquartered in Rockville, Maryland. Additional information is available through www.atto.com or (301) 340-7320.

Media Contact:

Philip G. Vanek
Director, Corporate Development
Atto Bioscience