FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 30, 2003

Guava Technologies Inc, a biotechnology company focused on providing comprehensive cell analysis at the benchtop, and the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham in the UK today announced they have formed a strategic research alliance to study apoptosis, or programmed cell death.

Major Research Alliance Focuses Upon Apoptosis

Guava Technologies Inc, a biotechnology company focused on providing comprehensive cell analysis at the benchtop, and the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Birmingham in the UK today announced they have formed a strategic research alliance to study apoptosis, or programmed cell death. Researchers at the University of Birmingham, under the direction of Professor Mohamed Al-Rubeai, will explore how Guava's benchtop micro-volume cell analysis systems can accelerate the department's monitoring of cell cultures for apoptosis.

Guava's cell analysis systems, the Guava PCA and Guava PCA-96, significantly streamline cell analysis research and the R&D process by enabling scientists to perform a variety of whole cell assays at their benchtops, with less than a day of training. Furthermore, the Guava PCA systems require only small numbers of cells in microlitre sample volumes to produce highly accurate and easy-to-read results.

"The Guava PCA system will enable us to perform experiments that we could not easily accomplish with either manual microscopy or centralised flow cytometry systems," said Professor Mohamed Al-Rubeai. "The ability to perform cellular assays and specifically apoptotic measurements in our cellular physiology research, using micro-volume levels of precious cells and reagents is an enormous advantage. Moreover, instead of using traditional technologies that are slower and more tedious, or require coordination and scheduling with core testing facilities, we can now conduct cell-based testing easily in our own labs. Our alliance with Guava Technologies will significantly increase both the speed and productivity for some of our key research programs in the field of apoptosis."

"The University of Birmingham in England, one of the world's premier Bioprocessing research institutions, actively promotes the use of novel and exciting technologies to solve critical problems and ultimately improve cell culture production," said Paul Kinnon, Guava Technologies' vice president of marketing and sales. "We are excited to be working with the team at the University of Birmingham to accelerate their research and to explore further and more advanced apoptosis applications for the Guava PCA systems."

Guava has released an application note on at line cell culture monitoring describing some of its work with Dr. Al-Rubeai. The PDF is available as a free download at Guava's website, www.guavatechnologies.com.

About University of Birmingham
The University of Birmingham's School of Engineering was recently opened by Science Minister, Lord Sainsbury, and received the 5th highest number of international and world-class ratings in a 2001 Research Assessment Exercise surveying all UK universities. The school is comprised of five divisions: Chemical and Formulation Engineering, Civil Engineering, Electronic, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Metallurgy and Materials Engineering and the Interdisciplinary Research Center (IRC). The University of Birmingham has 26,000 students and is one of the largest employers in Birmingham with an annual budget of nearly £279 million.

About Guava Technologies, Inc.
Based in Hayward, California, Guava Technologies is a biotechnology company that develops, manufactures and markets patented, integrated cellular analysis systems for the life science researcher's benchtop. The company is revolutionizing the way that cell culture monitoring and cell screening assays are performed, by providing compact micro-volume scale systems that make common assays in cell-based analysis accessible at the benchtop. Guava's products have broad applications to life sciences research, drug discovery and biopharmaceutical production today, but also offer potential for use in clinical testing and blood processing, as well as other areas where single cell analysis is important. More information about the company and its products is available at www.guavatechnologies.com.

CONTACTS:

Guava Technologies 25801, Industrial Boulevard Hayward, CA 94545-2991 USA www.guavatechnologies.com

EUROPE: Dr Bill Bradbury tel.: 44-208-546-0869 email: wbprimetek@aol.com N.AMERICA Marie Martin tel.: +1-510-576-1427 email: mmartin@guavatechnologies.com Joan Kureczka tel.: +1-415-821-2413 email: jkureczka@aol.com