Exhibit 10.32

                                               Text omitted and filed separately
                                                Confidential Treatment Requested
                                             Under 17 C.F.R ss.ss.200.80(b) (4),
                                                            200.83 and 240.24b-2


                               FIRST AMENDMENT TO
                  TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND SERVICES AGREEMENT


This amendment  ("First  Amendment") to the Technology  Development and Services
Agreement  ("Agreement")  is  made  and  entered  into  as of the  first  day of
September, 1997 (the "First Amended Effective Date") by LYNX THERAPEUTICS, INC.,
a  Delaware  corporation,   and  its  majority-owned   subsidiaries,   including
SPECTRAGEN,  INC.,  (collectively  referred  to as "Lynx")  and  Hoechst  Marion
Roussel,  Inc., a Delaware corporation,  to whom the Agreement was assigned, and
its affiliates ("HMRI").

RECITALS

WHEREAS,  Lynx and HMRI agree that the  Practical  Application  Milestone as set
forth in the Agreement needs to be amended;

WHEREAS,  HMRI  continues to desire early,  preferred  access to Lynx's  library
analysis capabilities;

NOW THEREFORE,  in consideration of the foregoing premises and the covenants and
promises in the Agreement and in this First Amendment.

ARTICLE 1 - DEFINITIONS

Capitalized  terms used in this First Amendment shall have the meanings ascribed
to them in the Agreement  unless  otherwise  defined in or amended by this First
Amendment.

1.1 "Practical  Application  Milestone" means  achievement by Lynx of sufficient
development of MPSS to demonstrate that the  reproducibility  and specificity of
the  technology  is such that it is ready  for  practical  application,  as more
specifically set forth in Exhibit A attached hereto.

                                                                   Page 12 of 17



ARTICLE 2 - DEVELOPMENT OF MPSS TECHNOLOGY

2.1 Lynx Program. Lynx shall continue to use commercially  reasonable efforts in
performing the Development Work,  consistent with its normal business practices,
with the goal of achieving the Practical  Application  Milestone  expeditiously.
Notwithstanding,  Lynx makes no  representations,  warranty or  guarantee of any
kind that it can or will  achieve the  Practical  Application  Milestone  at any
time.

2.2 Reports and Information. No amendment is made to this Article.

2.3 Ownership of Technology. No amendment is made to this Article.

2.4  Development  Payments to Lynx. Lynx  acknowledges  that Hoechst has paid to
Lynx three million U.S. Dollars ($3,000,000),  in part, for Lynx's commitment to
undertake the Development  Work. Lynx agrees that no additional  payment by HMRI
to Lynx shall be required for Lynx's  continued  effort to achieve the Practical
Application  Milestone.  Within  thirty  days after Lynx  notifies  HMRI that it
believes the Practical Application Milestone has been achieved and provides HMRI
with the data  demonstrating  achievement  of such  milestone,  HMRI will, if in
agreement,  so indicate its  agreement  or will  indicate  that,  in HMRI's sole
discretion, the data is sufficiently satisfactory to HMRI that the milestone has
effectively been achieved. In either case, HMRI, in place of Hoechst,  agrees to
pay Lynx Eight Million U.S. Dollars  ($8,000,000) within fifteen (15) days after
such  indication.  In the  event  that  Lynx  does  not  achieve  the  Practical
Application  Milestone by January 15, 1998,  HMRI,  pursuant to Article 5.1, may
terminate the Agreement, as amended hereby, or HMRI may, in its sole discretion,
allow Lynx up to four months  additional time (additional from January 15, 1998)
to achieve the  Practical  Application  Milestone and HMRI will indicate to Lynx
the extended  milestone  date.  If  additional  time beyond  January 15, 1998 is
granted,  then the Practical  Application  Milestone payment shall be reduced by
Seven Hundred Fifty Thousand U.S.  Dollars  ($750,000) for each month thereafter
that Lynx does not achieve the Practical  Application  Milestone (with a maximum
reduction of Three  Million U.S.  Dollars  ($3,000,000).  In the event that Lynx
does not achieve the Practical  Application  Milestone by the extended milestone
date, HMRI may, in its sole discretion  exercisable during the thirty day period
after the  extended  milestone  date,  pay Lynx the  milestone  payment then due
($8,000,000  less any  reduction  as set forth  above) in lieu of the  milestone
payment contemplated hereby, in which case the Practical  Application  Milestone
will be  deemed  to have  been  achieved  on  extended  milestone  date.  If the
Practical Application Milestone will be deemed to have been achieved on extended
milestone date. If the Practical Application Milestone is not so achieved by the
extended  milestone  date  and HMRI  does not  elect  to  regard  the  Practical
Application Milestone as having been achieved, the Agreement, as amended hereby,
will terminate on the thirtieth day following the extended milestone date.

                                                                   Page 13 of 17



ARTICLE 3 - LYNX MPSS SERVICES

No amendment is made to this Article.

ARTICLE 4 - CONFIDENTIALITY

No amendment is made to this Article.

ARTICLE 5 - TERM AND TERMINATION

5.1 Term.  The provisions of Article 5.1 of the Agreement are amended to provide
for termination or expiration as contemplated by Article 2.4.

5.2 All other terms and conditions of Article 5 of the Agreement are not amended
hereby.

ARTICLE 6 - REPRESENTATIONS AND WARRANTIES

No amendment is made to this Article.

ARTICLE 7 - MISCELLANEOUS

No amendment is made to this Article except that all notices to Hoechst pursuant
to article 7.6 of this Agreement shall hereafter be delivered to

Hoechst Marion Roussel, Inc.
2110 East Galbraith Road
Cincinnati, OH 45215
Attention: General Patent Counsel


IN WITNESS  WHEREOF,  the parties hereto have duly executed this First Amendment
as of the date first written above.

LYNX THERAPEUTICS, INC.                      HOECHST MARION ROUSSEL, INC.


By: /s/ Sam Eletr                            By: /s/ Norbert Riedel
    ---------------------------                  -------------------------------

Title  CEO                                   Title   VP, Head of Biotechnology
     --------------------------                    -----------------------------

Date  September 10, 1997                     Date  September 19, 1997
     --------------------------                   ------------------------------

                                                                   Page 14 of 17





                                    EXHIBIT A

                         Practical Application Milestone


The achievement of the Practical  Application  Milestone will be demonstrated by
testing three  components of the Lynx Method.  Those  components  will be termed
[...***...],  [...***...] and  [...***...].  These three  components of the Lynx
method will be tested in the chosen  mammalian cell culture system  ([...***...]
and  [...***...]  induced  with  [...***...]  and  [...***...]  according to the
[...***...]) to provide sufficient support for validation of this technology.

In terms of [...***...],  this method must  demonstrate it is at least as useful
as existing methods available to HMR in which this mammalian cell culture system
has been  tested.  To that end,  it is agreed  that HMR will share with Lynx the
identity  and  expression   pattern  of  a  number  of  genes   ([...***...]  to
[...***...])  known to be  [...***...]  in this  biological  paradigm  and these
[...***...]  genes must appear in the Lynx datasets and reflect the  qualitative
[...***...]  expected from known results as well.  Should there be a discrepancy
in the appearance of any of these  [...***...]  expressed  genes,  Lynx will run
appropriate  Northern  Blot  analyses to determine  the  existence or absence of
those genes in question in that biological material. In addition,  HMR will also
share with Lynx the identity of all  available  genes from internal and external
sources  based on this  biological  model.  In order to  accommodate  the  known
efficiency of the [...***...] used in the Lynx experiment,  [...***...]  percent
of those sequences from this HMR dataset must also appear in the Lynx validation
data. For this section of the validity evaluation, should any sequences from the
HMR  dataset  not  appear in the Lynx  dataset,  HMR will  choose a  maximum  of
[...***...] sequences which Lynx will probe against their libraries to determine
their presence or absence. The presence of [...***...] of these genes during the
library probe will indicate  that the  Practical  Application  Milestone has not
been met. The absence of these genes in the library  probe will be sufficient to
remove  them  from  further  consideration  in the  validation  experiment.  All
sequence  data  sets  delivered  by HMR  will be  analyzed  to  assure  there is
sufficient  sequence  information,  given  the  expected  [...***...]  near  the
[...***...] end of the sequence, to overlap with the expected Lynx signature.

In terms of  [...***...],  this method must  provide  more  information  than is
currently available to HMR. To that end, HMR will choose [...***...]  additional
genes, other than those above,  which are  differentially  expressed in the Lynx
validation  experiment with a minimum expression level of [...***...] copies per
sequencing  run  [...***...]  and confirm  their  existence  through  biological
evaluation,  i.e.  northern blot.  These genes will be chosen by HMR at the time
the  data  become   available  from  the  first   [...***...]   sequencing  runs
[...***...].

In terms of [...***...] of the Lynx  technology,  all genes repeated in the Lynx
datasets,  [...***...]  of  expressed  genes,  must  have,  within  the  set  of
[...***...] as well as within the set of [...***...]  sequencing runs, a maximum
difference within any pair of that set falling within [...***...].

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*Confidential Treatment Requested

                                                                   Page 15 of 17



Additionally,  prior to beginning the validation sequencing,  Lynx will complete
its internal  [...***...]  sequencing  experiment  and forward this data to HMR.
Also, HMR will hold that the validation will be met only when  [...***...]  sets
of [...***...] sequencing runs of [...***...] and [...***...] sequencing runs of
[...***...]  material meet the above standards internally and across the sets as
described in the validation scheme.  This will provide assurance to HMR that the
technology  will be applicable with minimal  sequencing  runs. It is also agreed
that when the first [...***...] sequencing runs have been completed according to
the  attached  scheme,  HMR will  analyze the dataset to  determine  the maximal
signature length necessary for the remaining  validation  experiment only. These
results will be applied to the remaining [...***...] sequencing runs.

Also, although not formally part of the validation experiment, HMR will validate
the  preparation of [...***...] at Lynx by performing  Northern blot analyses on
one [...***...]  sample each from the [...***...] and [...***...]  cell cultures
for selected  genes on this  material as well as material  prepared at HMR using
the  identical  protocols.  To this end, Lynx agrees to provide  [...***...]  of
[...***...] from one each of the [...***...] and [...***...] samples.



/s/   Sam Eletr                                     /s/   Norbert Riedel
- ----------------------------                        ----------------------------
Lynx Therapeutics, Inc.                             for Hoechst Marion Roussel

- ------------------
*Confidential Treatment Requested

                                                                   Page 16 of 17