Gene Logic Inc., a genomics and bioinformatics company, has identified 2,513 genes associated with heart failure, renal disease, infertility, and other disorders and 1,794 genes associated with mammalian toxicity and agricultural crop characteristics. The company's customers have 11 of these genes in development as new drug targets.

These discoveries were announced in New York today by Mark D. Gessler, Gene Logic's
President and Chief Operating Officer, during a presentation at a conference on genomics and drug discovery sponsored by ING Barings LLC.

These 4,307 genes are potentially useful as targets for new drugs and crop protection products or
as markers that help predict the toxic effects of new compounds. These genes are also helping
researchers decipher the "pathways,'' or chains of physiological events, involved in disease
progression.

Gene Logic identified these genes in two years using its patented READS(TM) technology, which
measures gene expression, or the degree to which a gene is active in a certain tissue. Differences in gene expression can reveal which genes are involved in various cell functions and disorders.

Other genomics companies and the government-sponsored Human Genome Project have identified genes by determining the sequences of four chemical bases that make each gene unique. But sequence information does not disclose a gene's function or its possible role in disease processes. With the READS technology, Gene Logic can identify genes that are differentially expressed in any disease, even when researchers have no prior knowledge of the genes' sequences.

"The rapidity with which we have been able to make these discoveries was unimaginable just a few years ago,'' Gessler said. "We have been able to identify 2,500 potential new drug targets in just two years. For comparison, all of the drugs brought to the market in the entire history of the
pharmaceutical industry affect fewer than 500 drug targets. The increase in productivity made
possible by gene expression technology bodes well for the future of pharmaceutical R&D.''

Gene Logic is applying for several kinds of patents on these discoveries. Some patents cover newly discovered genes. Others involve previously known genes that the company has determined are associated with certain diseases.

Six hundred eighty-seven of the genes identified by Gene Logic, including 392 of the potential drug targets, are novel, that is, are not recorded in any of the public genomic databases. Eight hundred seventy-eight, including 684 of the potential drug targets, match gene fragments but not full-length genes in the public databases, and thus no scientific studies have been published on their functions and roles in disease.

The company expects the pace of discovery to be even faster next year. Using both the READS
technology and GeneChip® probe arrays developed by Affymetrix Inc. (Nasdaq: AFFX - news) of
Santa Clara, Calif., Gene Logic is building the world's only large reference databases of gene
expression. Scheduled for release this fall, the new GeneExpress(TM) databases will contain
expression measurements from virtually every human tissue and major disease, as well as
measurements from tissues exposed to known toxins and every major class of pharmaceuticals.

Unlike databases that catalog relative results from comparisons conducted at one point in time, the GeneExpress databases contain accurate, absolute expression measurements, which can be
compared to each other or to the results of separate experiments. This reference capability will
enable researchers to conduct "virtual'' studies on computers, thereby accelerating the process of
drug target discovery and evaluation.

Gene Logic uses a variety of technologies to develop large reference databases and custom
databases of gene expression information. These databases enable pharmaceutical and life science companies to accelerate the discovery and development of new drugs, diagnostics, and agricultural products. In 1999, Bloomberg Personal Finance ranked Gene Logic one of the ten fastest-growing technology companies in the United States. Gene Logic's customers and collaborators include American Home Products Corp.'s Wyeth- Ayerst Research unit; Hoechst Schering AgrEvo GmbH, one of the world's largest agricultural product manufacturers; Japan Tobacco Inc.; Merck & Company Inc.; NV Organon, a pharmaceutical unit of Akzo Nobel NV; Procter & Gamble Pharmaceuticals; Rhone-Poulenc Rorer Inc.; Schering-Plough Corp.; SmithKline Beecham PLC; and UCB Research Inc., a division of UCB Pharma Inc. For more information about Gene Logic, visit the company's Web site at www.genelogic.com.

Company news release
N2161