Wednesday May 1, 2002

COMPANY PRESS RELEASE

Transgenomic Inc. Reports First Quarter 2002 Results

Revenues Up 24 Percent From Comparable Period in 2001

OMAHA, Neb., and SAN JOSE, Calif., May 1 / -- Transgenomic, Inc. (Nasdaq: TBIO) today announced financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2002.

First Quarter 2002

First quarter revenues increased 24 percent to $9.8 million in 2002 from $7.9 million in 2001. The net loss for the quarter was $3.4 million, or $0.14 per share. This compares to a net loss of $1.1 million, or $0.05 per share, in the first quarter of 2001. Operating expenses for the quarter were roughly in line with previous guidance.

The company's cash and investments at the end of the period totaled $34.8 million.

Comment and Outlook

"As we previously communicated, the shortfall in expected revenue was due to lower instrument sales. This was the result of a lack of spending by our industrial and commercial customers and weaker than expected demand from Japan," commented Greg Duman, CFO. "We have traditionally had 25-35 percent of our instrument revenue from commercial and industrial customers. This quarter it was approximately 8 percent." Duman added, "While disappointed in this quarter, we are optimistic about the future as customers are telling us they are not opting for alternative technology but making an economic decision to postpone purchase decisions. We have seen no decline in our average selling prices, which indicates to us that our customers continue to view our WAVE^® System as an essential platform for genetic research."

Collin D'Silva, CEO, remains confident that the company can execute on its business objectives. "We remain committed to our traditional instrument business, and plan to drive demand through the introduction of new applications on our versatile WAVE platform," noted D'Silva. "We are optimistic regarding our ability to leverage novel applications to drive penetration into new commercial and industrial market segments, through participation in additional stages of the drug development continuum; areas such as toxicology and quality control. We also expect positive impact on the instrument business due to the upcoming shipment of WAVE Navigator™ software, the first shipments of our newest instrument, called WAVE-MD™, and the increased funding Congress provided to the National Institutes of Health." According to D'Silva, Navigator will provide additional value for WAVE users and WAVE-MD will extend the WAVE platform to a new set of customers.

D'Silva also summarized the outlook for the company's consumable products. He noted that WAVE-associated consumables should grow along with the installed base of instruments and should be strengthened by sales of its recently introduced polymerase, Optimase™. In addition, he noted that its synthetic nucleic acid (SNA) products provide the company the opportunity to participate in the higher value diagnostic and therapeutic markets. The company continues to invest for the expected growth in those markets this year. "Our SNA products are fundamental building blocks utilized throughout the biotech industry," D'Silva said. "As biotech companies continue turning genomic information into products, they will require SNA building blocks in both their development of molecular-based diagnostics and DNA-based drugs, and in the manufacture of those products. We offer our shareholders the opportunity to participate in these higher value domains."

Earnings Call

The Company will host a live broadcast of its first quarter 2002 financial results via conference call over the Internet on Wednesday, May 1, at 5 p.m. Eastern time. To listen to the Webcast, investors should log on to http://www.videonewswire.com/event.asp?id=4285 and follow the instructions listed. A link to this site will also be located on the Company's Investor Relations Web page at http://www.transgenomic.com/Pages/Press.asp?year=Recent. An archived recording of the conference call will be available and can be accessed via the web using the same links listed above for 90 days after the call. Investors can also listen to a replay via telephone from 8 p.m. ET on May 1 through Wednesday, May 15, 2002, midnight ET. Simply dial 402-220-0662 from any telephone.

About Transgenomic

Transgenomic provides versatile and innovative research tools and related consumable products to the life sciences industry for the synthesis, separation, analysis and purification of nucleic acids and a wide variety of nucleic acid-based specialty chemicals. Transgenomic's specialty chemicals consist of nucleic acid building blocks ("phosphoramidites"), fluorescent markers, dyes and associated reagents, as well as oligomimetics (chemically-modified DNA and RNA molecules) which exhibit proven enhancements in stability, bioavailability, specificity and efficacy, making them excellent candidates for use in clinical applications such as genetic diagnostics and therapeutics. Oligomimetics also exhibit higher affinity and specificity than regular DNA making them excellent candidates for DNA diagnostics and chip technology.

Transgenomic's WAVE^® System is a versatile system that can be used for genetic variation detection, size-based double-strand DNA separation and analysis, single-strand DNA separation and analysis and DNA purification. Because of this versatility, the WAVE System can essentially replace the use of traditional gel electrophoresis in the molecular biology laboratory. This patented technology uses a process known as high-performance liquid chromatography to separate DNA material so that genetic variation may be identified and analyzed. Proprietary software controls the process and produces the results of the operation in an easy-to-read chart format. Once the DNA sample is loaded into the instrument and necessary data is entered into the software, the process requires virtually no additional input from the researcher.

In four years, Transgenomic has installed WAVE Systems in 25 countries, evidence that it is a global leader in solutions for nucleic acid analysis.

For more information about the innovative genomics research tools developed and marketed by Transgenomic, please visit the company's Web site at www.transgenomic.com.

Cautionary Statement

This press release may contain forward-looking statements that reflect management's current views and estimates of future economic circumstances, industry conditions, company performance and financial results, including securing previously postponed orders for its instruments, driving demand for its instruments through new applications, generating future revenue through new software and instrument versions, and participating in growing genomic-based diagnostic and therapeutic markets. Such statements are subject to certain factors, risks and uncertainties described from time to time in Transgenomic, Inc.'s reports to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Any change in such factors, risks and uncertainties may cause the actual results, events and performance to differ materially from those referred to in such statements. Accordingly, the Company claims the protection of the safe harbor for forward-looking statements contained in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 with respect to all statements contained in this press release.

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BALANCE SHEETS

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