San Jose, California

September 28, 2004

PhyNexus, Inc., a leading supplier of micro volume protein purification systems and QIAGEN N.V. (NASDAQ: QGENF; Frankfurt, Prime Standard: QIA) a leading supplier of products and technologies for biomolecule separation, purification and handling today announced the signing of a licensing agreement.

QIAGEN, as the exclusive license holder of patents for the His-tag technology granted to F. Hoffmann-La Roche, is manufacturing and selling 6xHis-tag coding vectors and Ni-NTA resin into the research market. Under these patent rights QIAGEN has granted PhyNexus the right to incorporate QIAGEN’s Ni-NTA resin for the purification of His-tagged protein into its patent pending PhyTip™ columns which are specifically designed for micro volume protein purification and enrichment.

“The addition of Ni-NTA as an affinity resin to capture His-tagged proteins will allow PhyNexus to expand its existing portfolio of products for micro volume protein purification and provide researchers with a unique tool for high performance purification”, said Douglas Gjerde, CEO of PhyNexus. “PhyTip columns are capable of very high purification (>95%) and enrichment (up to 5 mg/mL) using a variety of different affinity resins in a range of formats from one to 96 at a time, and maintain the functionality of the purified protein. With Ni-NTA based PhyTip columns, researchers will now be able to purify His-tagged proteins at a micro volume scale which has never been possible before.”

About PhyNexus.

PhyNexus has developed a unique technology to address the need for high performance, micro volume protein purification and enrichment with its PhyTip columns. These disposable devices can be used to rapidly prepare fully functional, purified recombinant proteins and antibodies with high enrichment. PhyNexus is headquartered in San Jose, California. Further information on PhyNexus can be found at www.phynexus.com.

PhyNexus Contact:

P J Schmit

Chief Operating Officer

408-267-7214