Richmond, Calif. / Frankfurt, Germany – April 15, 2008 – Cisbio, a leading global provider of technologies for drug discovery, last week introduced a new series of high-performance lanthanide fluorescence assays to the market based on technology from Lumiphore Inc., an investment holding of Nanostart AG. These assays are used to test substances for pharmacological activity.

Lumiphore, the leader in ultra-bright lanthanide fluorescence technology driving new biological research discovery, today laid out a roadmap for expanding the technology’s penetration into additional commercial markets. With its ownership stake of more than 20 percent, Frankfurt-based Nanostart AG is the largest shareholder in the Silicon Valley company.

“The Cisbio relationship and business model are working well for both companies, as witnessed by the announcement and the strong early interest in the products,” said Ken Raymond, Lumiphore President and Chairman of the Board of Directors. “This is great validation for our approach of focusing on the technology and partnering with market leaders who have deep presence with end user customers in specific application areas.”

The versatility of Lumiphore’s lanthanide fluorescence complexes in Cisbio assays allows them to be easily incorporated into current high through-put drug development processes, where they deliver a number of significant advantages based on a more than tenfold increase in brightness over competing lanthanide compounds. Drug discovery is only one of the many areas where Lumiphore’s brightness and ease of use will enable faster, more cost effective use, and the ability to discover and analyze previously undetectable biological and diagnostic events.

Andreas Kröll, Senior Portfolio Manager at Nanostart AG, commented on the successful market introduction, “The integration of Lumiphore’s technology into Cisbio products represents an enormous success for Nanostart AG. This validates the superior characteristics of the technology, for example in terms of sensitivity, and serves as a tremendous basis for developing additional partnerships in new markets such as the diagnostics market.”

About Lumiphore:

Lumiphore Inc. is the pioneering leader in state-of-the-art lanthanide fluorescence detection technology. The company’s patented, ultra-bright Lumi4™ lanthanides vastly improve and accelerate scientific discovery, diagnostics and research – particularly TRF (time-resolved fluorescence) – because they are an order of magnitude brighter than competing lanthanides and they are extremely stable and easy to use. Lumi4™ lanthanides enable the discovery of new substances and interactions that were previously undetectable while reducing time and cost. The technology is well suited to a wide variety of research areas, including drug discovery, diagnostics and commercial DNA applications. The company’s products reach end user customers through partners and licensees who are leading suppliers and developers of high-value products in many biotechnology markets.. Lumiphore owns exclusive rights to the original technology patents from the University of California, Berkeley, and retains the original inventors as key contributors to the firm. Further information is available on the company’s website www.lumiphore.com.

About Cisbio:

Cisbio international is a global developer of technologies which, through the development of assays and drug screening procedures, are used to optimize drug discovery.  Cisbio is the pioneer in the field of homogenous fluorescence methodologies with its proprietary technology HTRF^®, a highly sensitive and robust technology for the detection of molecular interactions of proteins in vitro, widely used by the pharmaceutical industry for high throughput screening for the development of new drugs.  With its HTRF^®®, log onto www.htrf.com.

About Nanostart:

Nanostart AG is the world’s leading nanotechnology investment company. The Frankfurt-based company provides venture capital financing for nanotechnology companies in various growth phases. It also provides the benefits of its experience and expertise to developers of financial instruments and to investors in the nanotechnology sector. For further information about the company, please visit www.nanostart.de.

Disclaimer:

This notice constitutes neither an offer to sell nor a solicitation of offers to purchase or subscribe to securities. There will be no public offering of securities of Nanostart AG in conjunction with the existing listing of its shares in the “Entry Standard” segment of the regulated unofficial market (Freiverkehr) on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. This notice does not constitute a securities prospectus. Neither this notice nor the information contained within is intended for direct or indirect distribution within the United States of America, Canada, Australia or Japan.

Media contact:

Nanostart AG
Public Relations
Dr. Hans Joachim Dürr
Goethestrasse 26-28
D-60313 Frankfurt
Germany
phone: +49 (0)69-21 93 96 111
fax: +49 (0)69-21 93 96 122
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