SANTA CLARA, Calif., Jan 13, 2012 Affymetrix, Inc. , announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with BGI, the world’s largest genomics organization, to enter into a strategic co-development and co-marketing collaboration. The non-exclusive partnership will aim to develop and commercialize a portfolio of plant, crop, and livestock microarrays for genotyping analysis, spanning applications such as marker-assisted trait selection, parentage, quality control, and traceability.

The global agricultural community will benefit from this partnership through cost-effective and high-throughput solutions that leverage BGI’s vast catalog of high-quality sequencing data and bioinformatics analyses from plant, crop, and livestock genomes and Affymetrix’ expertise as a leader in microarray technology. The collaboration will provide scientists with access to a broad range of well-annotated and inter- and intra-species bio-diverse genomic markers from the 1000 Plant and Animal Reference Genomes Project, initiated by BGI in 2010.

“We are pleased to be working with BGI to expand the use of molecular tools in agriculture,” said Dr. Frank Witney, President and Chief Executive Officer of Affymetrix. “This is a fast developing field that is key to accelerating critical discoveries that will improve the yield and nutritional value of food and feed around the globe.”

“The combination of BGI’s next-generation sequencing platforms, bioinformatics capabilities and sequencing database, and Affymetrix’ advanced genotyping technology will help advance the application of genomic selection to scientists seeking to improve outcomes in breeding plants, crops, and livestock,” said Dr. Jun Wang, Executive Director of BGI. “We look forward to making plant and animal sequencing data more widely available to the global agricultural community.”

BGI was founded in Beijing, China in 1999, with the mission of being a premier scientific partner to the global research community. The goal of BGI is to make leading-edge genomic science highly accessible through its investment in infrastructure that leverages the best available technology, economies of scale, and expert bioinformatics resources.

BGI, and its affiliates, BGI Americas, based in Cambridge, MA and BGI Europe, based in Copenhagen, Denmark, have established partnerships and collaborations with leading academic and government research institutions as well as global biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, supporting a variety of disease, agricultural, environmental, and related applications. BGI has established a proven track record of excellence, delivering results with high efficiency and accuracy for innovative, high profile research that has generated more than 170 publications in top-tier journals such as Nature and Science. For additional information about BGI, please visit www.genomics.cn or www.bgiamericas.com .

Affymetrix technology is used by the world’s top pharmaceutical, diagnostic, and biotechnology companies as well as leading academic, government, and nonprofit research institutes. More than 2,100 systems have been shipped around the world, and more than 23,500 peer-reviewed papers have been published using the technology. Affymetrix is headquartered in Santa Clara, Calif., and has manufacturing facilities in Santa Clara, Cleveland, Ohio, and Singapore. The company has about 900 employees worldwide and maintains sales and distribution operations across Europe, Asia, and Latin America. For more information about Affymetrix, please visit http://www.affymetrix.com .

All statements in this press release that are not historical are “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities Exchange Act as amended, including statements regarding Affymetrix’ “expectations,” “beliefs,” “hopes,” “intentions,” “strategies,” or the like. Such statements are subject to risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially for Affymetrix from those projected. These and other risk factors are discussed in Affymetrix’ Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2010, and other SEC reports for subsequent quarterly periods.

NOTE: Affymetrix, and the Affymetrix logo, are trademarks or registered trademarks of Affymetrix, Inc.