Applied DNA Sciences Ships SigNature(R) T DNA to Tag 100 Million Pounds of Cotton During Fiscal 2015

STONY BROOK, NY--(Marketwired - October 08, 2015) - Applied DNA Sciences, Inc. (NASDAQ: APDN) (Twitter: @APDN), a provider of DNA-based supply chain, anti-counterfeiting and anti-theft technology, product genotyping and product authentication solutions, has shipped SigNature T DNA to tag 100 million pounds of cotton in total during FY 2015 (ending 30 September 2015). Cotton gins are expected to run in the United States through approximately February 2016 and APDN's selling efforts are ongoing.

In June 2015, the company announced the sale of DNA to tag over 20 million pounds of cotton. That number has soared to a total of 100 million pounds over the summer, and includes DNA-tagging cotton under both of its brands, "PimaCott™," for DNA-tagged Pima cotton, and "HomeGrown™" for DNA-tagged American Upland cotton. To keep up with demand, APDN is installing its proprietary SigNature T DNA-transfer systems at multiple cotton gins throughout the US.

"The increase in use of our SigNature T DNA taggant from an initial 5 million pounds last growing season to 100 million pounds this year demonstrates the scalability and growing customer adoption of our DNA technology as we deliver on commercial-scale deployment requirements," stated Dr. James Hayward, CEO of Applied DNA Sciences. "We are seeing increasing demand for SigNature T DNA tagging for cotton being driven by national retailers and their partners who seek to ensure the purity of their supply chains, compliance with governmental labeling regulations and higher-quality products for the American consumer. We anticipate that our success in cotton will be replicated in other synthetic and natural textiles applications and across other business verticals as we continue to mature other revenue opportunities."

Using APDN's patented SigNature T DNA technology, cotton fibers can be tagged at source, verified as "American grown" and then traced through every step of the supply chain. The company's patented genotyping platform, known as "fiberTyping^®", is used before tagging with SigNature T botanical DNA. fiberTyping is employed to identify the genus and species of the fibers before they are tagged with SigNature T DNA. fiberTyping cannot be used to track a specific cotton batch through the supply chain, a function which can only be accomplished by SigNature T.

About Applied DNA Sciences

Applied DNA Sciences makes life real and safe by providing biotechnology-driven solutions to help protect products, brands, entire supply chains, and intellectual property of companies, governments and consumers from theft, counterfeiting, fraud and diversion. Patented botanical DNA solutions can be used to identify, tag, track, and trace products, to help assure authenticity, traceability and quality of products. SigNature DNA is at the heart of a family of uncopyable, security and authentication solutions such as SigNature® T and fiberTyping®, targeted toward textiles and apparel, DNAnet®, for anti-theft and loss prevention, and digitalDNA®, providing powerful track and trace. All provide a forensic chain of evidence, and can be used to prosecute perpetrators.

Go to adnas.com for more information, events and to learn more about how Applied DNA Sciences makes life real and safe. Common stock listed on NASDAQ under the symbol APDN, and warrants are listed under the symbol APDNW.

Forward-Looking Statements

The statements made by APDN in this press release may be "forward-looking" in nature within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Act of 1995. Forward-looking statements describe APDN's future plans, projections, strategies and expectations, and are based on assumptions and involve a number of risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond the control of APDN. Actual results could differ materially from those projected due to our short operating history, limited financial resources, limited market acceptance, market competition and various other factors detailed from time to time in APDN's SEC reports and filings, including our Annual Report on Form 10-K filed on December 15, 2014, as amended on March 6, 2015, and our subsequent quarterly reports on Form 10-Q filed on February 9, 2015, May 11, 2015 and August 10, 2015, which are available at www.sec.gov. APDN undertakes no obligation to update publicly any forward-looking statements to reflect new information, events or circumstances after the date hereof to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events, unless otherwise required by law.