PHILADELPHIA, PA, March 14, 2006 - Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (AMEX: BIO and BIOb) announced today the enhancement of its KnowItAll® Informatics System offering comparative visualization, data mining and analysis to assess the similarities and dissimilarities in massive amounts of spectral, chromatographic or other graphical data. Overlap Density Heatmaps and Overlap Density Consensus Object displays are patent-pending technologies that allow clear and simple visualization of the most common (through least common) features of overlapped objects by color coding the areas from the highest to the lowest amount of overlap.

"Not being able to 'see the forest for the trees' is an inherent problem in the traditional stacked display of spectra or chromatograms, because information content diminishes as more objects are stacked," said Ty Abshear, Bio-Rad's Informatics Division Head of Software Development and inventor and lead author of the patent for the Overlap Density Heatmap technology. "Overlap Density Heatmaps reverse this situation by allowing comparative visualization of the overlap of vast numbers of spectra or chromatograms."

Overlap Density Heatmaps and Overlap Density Consensus Object displays can be used to analyze large amounts of graphical data coming from cheminformatics, spectroscopy, metabolomics, chemometrics, genomics and/or proteomics. They can also be used with any analytical, chromatographic or graphical techniques.

Traditionally, the visualization of multiple spectra or chromatograms takes place in an overlay, offset or stacked plot. These plotting methods obliterate trends when viewing large amounts of data. The Overlap Density Heatmap and Overlap Density Consensus Spectrum technologies manage large amounts of data so that trends and other useful information can be observed.

"The addition of these patent-pending technologies to the KnowItAll® Informatics System enhances data mining, visualization and analysis," said Bio-Rad's Informatics Division General Manager Gregory M. Banik, Ph.D. (Banik and Senior Software Developer Karl Nedwed are co-authors of the patent-pending technology). "Users are able to extract greater knowledge from spectral and chromatographic data and take advantage of KnowItAll's® tools for data processing, storage, searching and reporting."

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Bio-Rad's Informatics Division

Bio-Rad's Informatics Division (http://www.informatics.bio-rad.com) specializes in state-of-the-art software and database solutions for the pharmaceutical, biotech and chemical industries. Bio-Rad is the leading publisher of fully verified spectral databases, cheminformatics, spectroscopy software and decision support systems for drug discovery. The company's award-winning KnowItAll® Informatics System offers a fully integrated environment with flexible, expandable software and database solutions for spectroscopy (MS, NMR, IR, Raman, spectral data management), cheminformatics, in silico ADME/Tox prediction and lead optimization.

Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. (http://www.bio-rad.com) is a multinational manufacturer and distributor of life science research products and clinical diagnostics. Based in Hercules, California, Bio-Rad serves more than 70,000 research and industry customers worldwide through a network of more than 30 wholly owned subsidiary offices.

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Various statements made within this press release may constitute "forward-looking statements" for purposes of the Securities and Exchange Commission's "safe harbor" provisions under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and Rule 3b-6 under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. The forward-looking statements contained herein involve risks and uncertainties that could cause results to differ materially from the Company's expectations.

For more information contact:
Deborah Kernan, Marketing Communications Manager
Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc.
Phone: +1 215 349 7366
E-mail: deborah_kernan@bio-rad.com