- GNS Also Strengthens Scientific Advisory Board With The Addition
Of Two Renowned Cancer/Drug Discovery Researchers -

ITHACA, NY - April 17, 2002 - Gene Network Sciences (GNS), a pioneer in computational and systems biology, today announced that Dr. Stuart Kauffman, founding member of the Santa Fe Institute and founder and chief scientific officer of BiosGroup, has joined the company's board of directors.

"With their unprecedented size and scale, the computer models that GNS is working on hold the promise of helping to uncover the genetic regulatory networks that control cell development," said Kauffman. "The advances GNS is pursuing will have a major impact on the field of biomedicine and the drug discovery and treatment process."

Using gene expression and proteomics data, GNS creates computer models of the gene and protein circuits of living cells with the goal of identifying high-potential drug targets and testing potential drugs for efficacy. The company's data-driven platform allows for robust, customizable simulations of the gene expression networks, signal transduction pathways and metabolic pathways controlling the onset of disease. The company complements this predictive modeling approach with inferential bioinformatics and data mining tools, as well as quantitative experimental data. The primary disease cell that GNS is modeling is colon cancer. GNS is also modeling E. coli bacteria and Mycoplasma genitalium in conjunction with Dr. Michael Shuler, Director of Chemical Engineering at Cornell University.

A leading theorist in complexity science and genetic networks, Kauffman has served since 1985 as a consultant to Los Alamos National Laboratory, where significant early work on chaos theory was conducted. In addition to founding the BiosGroup with Ernst & Young, Kauffman also helped form CIStem Molecular and Darwin Molecular (acquired by Celltech Group). He is the author of several highly regarded books on complexity science including Origins of Order (1993), At Home in the Universe (1995) and Investigations (2000).

"Stuart brings to the GNS board both an unparalleled level of direct experience - more than 35 years of research on genetic networks - and his visionary insights for the future of biology," said Colin Hill, CEO of GNS. "Having a luminary like Stuart join our board is an affirmation of our technology and insurance that we will remain on the forefront of the field. Stuart Kauffman invented the discipline of systems biology and gene network modeling and will continue to play a leading role as the field evolves into a mainstream tool of pharmaceutical drug discovery."

Kauffman, the fifth GNS board member, joins: Hill; Dr. Alan Biloski, former managing director, mergers and acquisitions, Merrill Lynch & Co.; Thomas Neyarapally, partner, Big Red Venture Fund; and Thomas Paul, head of North American fixed-income trading, Deutsche Banc. Kauffman also is chairman of the BiosGroup board and sits on the board of CiStem Molecular.

In addition, GNS announced the appointments of two renowned drug discovery and cancer researchers to its scientific advisory board (SAB). Jeffrey Besterman, Ph.D., brings nearly 20 years of corporate and academic drug discovery experience to the SAB ranging from his current post of senior vice president of R&D at Methylgene to his former position as head of the department of cell biology at the Glaxo Research Institute. Daniel Notterman, M.D., professor of molecular biology at Princeton University, researches the molecular biology of cancer, with a focus on the gene expression pathways of colon cancer.

 
About Gene Network Sciences

Founded in August 2000, Gene Network Sciences (www.gnsbiotech.com) is a privately held biotech company headquartered in Ithaca, New York. A pioneer in the field of systems biology, GNS integrates biological and chemical data to create accurate and robust computer models of cell function and human biology. GNS helps pharmaceutical companies better understand the complex human biological systems that they seek to affect. The company's technology will ultimately increase clinical trial success rates and help bring better drugs to market faster.

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