BOTHELL, Wash.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Feb. 6, 2006--Lumera Corporation (Nasdaq:LMRA), an emerging leader in the field of nanotechnology, announced today that it has executed a letter of intent with the Medical University of South Carolina to purchase its newly released ProteomicProcessor(TM) Biosensor instrument. Additionally, MUSC and Lumera announced they will co-develop a new protein chip, based on Lumera's NanoCapture(TM) HPT technology, which will be aimed at the growing drug discovery and toxicology market. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

"Our agreement with MUSC represents a significant milestone for our Bioscience division," said Lumera CEO Tom Mino. "We believe the researchers at MUSC are truly innovative in their approach to developing next generation toxicology methods aimed at speeding up the drug discovery process. We see great potential for the jointly developed intellectual property."

Lumera's NanoCapture(TM) HPT technology is a proprietary surface coating and related methods, which allows proteins to be bound to a surface and remain biologically active. "In the emerging field of protein arrays, no standard has been created for attaching proteins to a chip. We believe that with our HPT technology, we are going to be able to define the standard," said Ron Dudek, Lumera's Bioscience Product Group Manager.

"Lumera's approach is entirely unique," said Dr. Craig Beeson, Associate Professor in the South Carolina College of Pharmacy at MUSC. "With the combined power of Lumera's ProteomicProcessor(TM) and NanoCapture(TM) HPT technologies, we feel as though we can catapult our research in mitochondrial biology to the forefront of the drug toxicology screening arena."

According to market research firm Business Communications Company, Inc., the U.S. market for in vitro toxicology is currently estimated at $1.1 billion. Forecasted to grow at an average annual growth rate of 12.1%, this market is expected to reach $1.96 billion by 2007.

Although financial terms were not disclosed, under this agreement, Lumera retains rights to commercialize all jointly developed intellectual property.

About MUSC

The Medical University of South Carolina's mission is to preserve and optimize human life in South Carolina and beyond. MUSC is the core of the state's largest medical complex, its only tertiary/quaternary care referral center, and its only free-standing academic health center. The university offers a full range of programs in the biomedical and health sciences serving as a setting for clinical research, contributing financial, facility and intellectual resources to conduct research, and providing opportunity for appropriate participation of hospital patients in research and treatment protocols. MUSC is listed by the National Science Foundation as one of the top 100 universities and colleges in the nation for garnering federal dollars for science and engineering.

About Lumera

Lumera is an emerging leader in the field of nanotechnology. The company designs proprietary molecular structures and polymer compounds for a broad range of bioscience, electro-optic, and specialty nanotechnology applications. The company also has developed proprietary processes for fabricating such devices. For more information, please visit http://www.lumera.com/ .

Certain statements contained in this release are forward-looking statements that involve a number of risks and uncertainties. Factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those projected in the company's forward-looking statements include the following: market acceptance of our technologies and products; our ability to obtain financing; our financial and technical resources relative to those of our competitors; our ability to keep up with rapid technological change; government regulation of our technologies; our ability to enforce our intellectual property rights and protect our proprietary technologies; the ability to obtain additional contract awards and to develop partnership opportunities; the timing of commercial product launches; the ability to achieve key technical milestones in key products; and other risk factors identified from time to time in the company's SEC reports, including in its Annual Report on 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2003, and its Quarterly Reports on Form 10-Q.