QIAGEN and Chinese Academy of Sciences Form Col...

Cooperation aims to better detect contaminations in dairy and other
food products in China and other Asian countries

Shanghai, September 25, 2008 --- QIAGEN (NASDAQ: QGEN, Frankfurt
Prime Standard: QIA) and the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS)
announced a collaboration to develop new molecular testing solutions
to improve the safety of food products.  The "CAS CAS/SIBS-QIAGEN
Food Safety Research Collaboration" started officially today in a
signing ceremony hosted by Dr. Chen Yan, Director of CAS/SIBS/INS,
and Mr. Peer Schatz, CEO of QIAGEN.

The collaboration  takes place  at  the campus  of the  Institute  of
Nutritional Sciences (INS), Shanghai Institute of Biological Sciences
(SIBS)  in   Xuhui  district,   and   has  been   operational   since
mid-September. QIAGEN will equip  the collaboration with  instruments
and consumables  while  CAS  will  provide  the  physical  space  and
researchers. Under this collaboration,  food safety experts from  the
INS will  use  QIAGEN  technologies,  to  develop  a  wide  range  of
molecular tests  for the  detection  of food-borne  pathogens.  These
QIAplex  multiplex  assays  allow  the  design  of  highly  sensitive
molecular tests for up to 50 different pathogens in one single run.

"INS has been  looking to  work with a  well respected  international
biotechnology company" said  Dr. Chen Yan.  "This collaboration  with
QIAGEN will help developing much needed food safety products not only
for the Chinese but also  for international markets. The  partnership
will aim to raise  food safety standards in  our country and  thereby
prevent any  harm caused  by  food pathogens  to  the health  of  our
consumers in the future."

In recent years,  the Asian Pacific  Region, and particularly  China,
has become  a  major exporter  of  a  broad range  of  food  products
including  rice  and   poultry  and  also   host  of  various   major
international events such as the Olympics and the 2010 Shanghai World
Expo. As such, governments of the region have been striving to  raise
food safety standards  to the  levels of their  trading partners  and
western  countries.  Currently,  the  Chinese  government  is  taking
stringent measures  to  significantly enhance  food  safety  testing,
particularly in  the  dairy  sector, following  the  recent  incident
involving contaminated dairy products.

Also other rapidly growing Asian economies need to ensure food safety
for a growing  number of their  own consumers -  as recent  incidents
have shown.  Many countries  still lack  the adequate  technology  or
procedures to respond to these developments. According to the WHO, 20
million cases of  food-borne infections  occur in  the Asian  Pacific
region alone, which  accounts for  more than  50 per  cent of  global
burden of this disease. "The disease burden and death toll  resulting
from food-borne  infections are  not acceptable",  says Peer  Schatz.
"The development and application of  new molecular tests provide  the
most reliable way to mitigate or even prevent these illnesses  caused
by the consumption  of unsafe food  here in Asia,  while at the  same
time enhancing the region's value as food exporters. We are therefore
very proud to have  entered this collaboration  with CAS, which  will
feed the growing demand for quicker, more accurate and more efficient
tests for food-borne  pathogens by  employing the power  of the  most
advanced molecular testing technologies".

About QIAGEN:

QIAGEN   N.V.,    a    Netherlands   holding    company,    is    the
leading global provider of  sample  and  assay  technologies.  Sample
technologies are used to  isolate and process  DNA, RNA and  proteins
from biological samples such  as blood or tissue. Assay  technologies
are used  to  make such  isolated  biomolecules visible.  QIAGEN  has
developed and markets more  than 500 consumable  products as well  as
automated solutions  for such  consumables. The company provides  its
products to molecular diagnostics laboratories, academic researchers,
pharmaceutical   and    biotechnology    companies,    and    applied
testing customers for  purposes such  as forensics,  animal  or  food
testing   and   pharmaceutical   process   control. QIAGEN's    assay
technologies  include  one  of  the  broadest  panels  of   molecular
diagnostic tests available  worldwide. This panel  includes the  only
FDA-approved test for human  papillomavirus (HPV), the primary  cause
of cervical cancer. QIAGEN employs more than 2,800 people in over  30
locations worldwide. Further information about QIAGEN can be found at
www.qiagen.com.

About INS, SIBS, CAS:
The Institute for Nutritional Sciences (INS) was established in  2003
by the Chinese  Academy of  Sciences, as  a member  institute of  the
Shanghai Institutes for  Biological Sciences. To  serve the  national
interests in  promoting public  health and  biomedical research,  the
mission of  the  Institute is  to  perform cutting-edge  research  on
nutrition-related diseases and food safety. The Institute  emphasizes
national and international collaborations with academic and  research
institutions and various industries.

Certain of  the statements  contained  in this  news release  may  be
considered forward-looking statements within  the meaning of  Section
27A of the U.S. Securities Act  of 1933, as amended, and Section  21E
of the  U.S. Securities  Exchange Act  of 1934,  as amended.  To  the
extent that  any  of  the statements  contained  herein  relating  to
QIAGEN's  products,  markets,  strategy  or  operating  results   are
forward-looking, such statements  are based  on current  expectations
that involve a number of uncertainties and risks. Such  uncertainties
and risks  include, but  are not  limited to,  risks associated  with
management of  growth  and international  operations  (including  the
effects  of  currency  fluctuations   and  risks  of  dependency   on
logistics),  variability   of  operating   results,  the   commercial
development of the applied testing markets, clinical research markets
and proteomics  markets,  nucleic  acid-based  molecular  diagnostics
market,  and   genetic   vaccination  and   gene   therapy   markets,
competition,   rapid   or   unexpected   changes   in   technologies,
fluctuations in demand for QIAGEN's, products (including fluctuations
due to the level and timing of customers' funding, budgets, and other
factors), our ability to obtain regulatory approval of our infectious
disease  panels,  difficulties  in  successfully  adapting   QIAGEN's
products to  integrated solutions  and producing  such products,  the
ability of  QIAGEN  to  identify  and develop  new  products  and  to
differentiate  its  products   from  competitors'  products,   market
acceptance  of  QIAGEN's   new  products  and   the  integration   of
acquisitions of technologies and businesses. For further information,
refer to the discussions  in reports that QIAGEN  has filed with,  or
furnished to, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

                                 ###

Contacts:


Asia / Pacific                      Europe / Rest of World
Brendan Green                       Thomas Theuringer
Phone:  [phone]             Phone: [phone]
Email:                              Email:
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