SAN DIEGO, CA - (September 05, 2001) - Structural Bioinformatics, Inc. (SBI) and ChemNavigator announced today the signing of an agreement to combine SBI's proprietary technologies in three-dimensional computational proteomics with ChemNavigator's proprietary technologies in chemistry. The collaborative agreement will greatly facilitate the rapid identification of new drug candidates. Under the terms of the agreement, SBI and its customers can use ChemNavigator's 3-D database of two million drug-like compounds to screen in silico against the 2600 3-D proprietary protein structures in SBI's drug target database. SBI and ChemNavigator will share in revenues generated from the combined use of their technologies.

"Every drug discovery program, whether in large pharmaceutical companies or small biotechs, is focused on identifying better lead compounds quickly," said Scott Hutton, president and CEO of ChemNavigator. "SBI has established a powerful program for efficient, well-focused drug discovery, including the characterization of active sites for families of proteins. Screening our compound library against these active sites will result in the quick identification of drug candidates that can be moved into lead optimization programs in months rather than years."

SBI will offer customers access to ChemNavigator's database through SBI's Genes to Leads(R) service, which rapidly identifies new drug candidates, while reducing synthesis and acquisition by 100-1,000 fold. Employing advanced supercomputer technology, SBI converts nucleic acid or amino acid sequences of clinically relevant drug targets into 3-D protein structures of x-ray crystallographic quality. The company then maps the binding sites for potential drug candidates, creating templates for high-throughput virtual screening of large 3-D databases of compounds. This service increases the probability of identifying molecules with greater specificity, more effectively harnessing the full range of molecular diversity.

"ChemNavigator's technology and resources complement our unique expertise in the structural determination of drug targets and will significantly advance both our internal and external drug discovery programs," said Ed Maggio, chairman, president and CEO of Structural Bioinformatics, Inc. "We will provide the protein drug targets and the technology for in silico screening, and ChemNavigator will provide a powerful cheminformatics platform and its worldwide network of chemistry suppliers."

Dr. Maggio added, "The first applications of our joint technologies will be applied to our ongoing research of clinical targets related to cancer, leukemia, and diabetes."

ChemNavigator brings its powerful, proprietary cheminformatics platform, called the iResearch(TM) System, to this equation. Life scientists use the iResearch System to accomplish in seconds the Herculean task of comparing large databases of chemical structures and identify compounds that meet certain criteria. In addition, ChemNavigator has working relationships with more than 30 international chemistry suppliers and is the source for the world's largest collection of accessible drug-like compounds. It is important to note that all the compounds in ChemNavigator's library are commercially accessible, meaning they have been made at least once before, as opposed to virtual compounds that are created using computer models and sometimes cannot be recreated in the laboratory.

About Structural Bioinformatics, Inc.

Structural Bioinformatics, Inc. (http://www.strubix.com) is a leading provider of 3-D protein structures, computational analysis tools, database platforms, and services to the burgeoning market of proteomics. SBI's products and services are employed in rational experimental design, drug discovery, and therapeutics. SBI's technologies enable customers to conduct research with greater speed and efficiency, thereby saving organizations considerable time and money. SBI has offices and research facilities in San Diego, CA; Cambridge, MA; Washington, DC; and Horsholm, Denmark.

About ChemNavigator, Inc.

ChemNavigator (http://www.chemnavigator.com) is bringing order to the world of chemical information through its powerful cheminformatics technology. The company's proprietary iResearch System is the fastest and most comprehensive chemical-structure-based search and comparison system in the world. ChemNavigator's technology is easily adapted to proprietary, customized applications behind a client's firewall to design custom information-biased libraries. In addition, applications of the iResearch System are available through the Internet for quickly searching for and sourcing commercially accessible screening compounds.