"The granting of this European Patent extends our nuclear transfer patent coverage into other important markets," said David J. Earp, J.D., Ph.D., Geron's vice president of intellectual property. Patents for this technology platform have already been granted in the United States, the United Kingdom, New Zealand, South Africa, Hong Kong, and accepted in Australia.

In 1999, Geron acquired a substantial patent portfolio related to nuclear transfer as part of its acquisition of Roslin Bio-Med, Ltd., the company established to commercialize the technology that produced Dolly, the cloned sheep. Since then, Geron has filed other patent applications to cover improvements in nuclear transfer that have developed from Geron's funded research at the Roslin Institute. "Worldwide, Geron currently owns or has rights to 17 granted patents and 53 pending patent applications covering various aspects of nuclear transfer. This intellectual property underpins the development and licensing activities of our nuclear transfer business unit," continued Dr. Earp.

Nuclear Transfer Business Unit

"Geron's in-house product development work is focused on oncology, regenerative medicine and drug discovery tools, applying our expertise and intellectual property in the broad areas of telomerase and human embryonic stem cells. We plan to use nuclear transfer to derive histocompatible human cells as part of our regenerative medicine program," noted David L. Greenwood, Geron's chief financial officer and senior vice president of Corporate Development. "There is, however, a large market opportunity in cloned animals for agriculture, xenotransplantation and biopharmaceutical production. Geron will participate in that market by licensing companies that, in our assessment, have a sound business plan and demonstrated ability to apply the technology. We have agreements in place with three companies so far. Our structure provides for upfront payments, equity and sharing of revenue streams."

Nuclear Transfer Technology

Nuclear transfer for animal cloning involves the transfer of genetic material from a cell of a donor animal to an oocyte (egg cell) from which the genetic material has been removed. The egg is then activated, forming an embryo that is implanted into a surrogate mother animal. Geron's nuclear transfer technology includes two breakthrough cloning techniques: the use of quiescent (resting) cells as nuclear transfer donors; and methods for preparing and activating the recipient cell. The techniques were developed in the cloning of Dolly, the first animal cloned from another adult animal cell.

"Our intellectual property rights in this area are broad, commensurate with the pioneering nature of the Dolly cloning work at Roslin," noted Dr. Earp. "These proprietary techniques have been widely adopted in the scientific community to clone several animal species, including sheep, goats, pigs and cows. Our technology can therefore form the basic 'operating system' for numerous animal cloning applications."

Geron is a biopharmaceutical company focused on discovering, developing and commercializing therapeutic and diagnostic products for applications in oncology and regenerative medicine, and research tools for drug discovery. Geron's product development programs are based upon three patented core technologies: telomerase, human embryonic stem cells and nuclear transfer.

This news release may contain forward-looking statements made pursuant to the "safe harbor" provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements in this press release regarding product development and future applications of Geron's technology constitute forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, risks inherent in the development and commercialization of potential products, dependence upon collaborative partners and the maintenance of our intellectual property rights. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements. Additional information on potential factors that could affect our results and other risks and uncertainties are detailed from time to time in Geron's periodic reports, including the quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the quarter ended September 30, 2000.