Dr. Ian Mcdonald Joins SBI as Vice President of Drug Discovery.

Business Editors & Health/Medical Writers

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SAN DIEGO--(BW HealthWire)--Jan. 4, 2001

Privately-held Structural Bioinformatics Inc. (SBI) today announced that Dr. Ian McDonald has joined the Executive Management Team as its Vice President of Drug Discovery.

Dr. McDonald will be responsible for all aspects of SBI's drug discovery efforts.

Immediately prior to joining SBI, Dr. McDonald was Senior Director of Chemistry at Merck Research Laboratories, which acquired SIBIA Neurosciences in 1999, where he served as Vice President from 1994 and Director of Chemistry since 1993. He received his B.S. and Ph.D. degrees from the School of Chemistry, the University of Western Australia, and completed his postdoctoral studies at the Organic Chemistry Institute of the University of Zurich. He has held senior positions at the State Health Laboratories in Perth, Australia; at the Australian National University; the Centre de Recherche Merrell International, Strasbourg, France; and Marion Merrell Dow, Cincinnati, Ohio. Dr. McDonald has published about 80 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, and currently is Editor-in-Chief of Current Drug Targets - CNS and Neurological Diseases, which will debut in 2002. He is also an inventor on 32 U.S. issued patents.

"Over the past few years, SBI has consistently demonstrated its unique ability to efficiently generate initial hits from in silico screening of virtual libraries against modeled protein structures," said Dr. Ian McDonald. "I am pleased to join SBI to expand its leadership position in drug discovery as we expand our wet lab capabilities to advance these novel hits towards clinical validation."

"Dr. McDonald brings a unique and proven set of scientific and management skills necessary for the continued growth and expansion of our drug discovery efforts," said Dr. Edward T. Maggio, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer. "I am pleased that Dr. McDonald has joined SBI's Management Team. His background and industry experience will enhance our drug discovery capabilities."

About Structural Bioinformatics Inc.

SBI is a world leader in computational proteomics -- the large-scale generation and use of protein structure and protein structural information. The company has developed advanced technologies to generate highly refined 3-dimensional structural models of proteins from primary genetic information and commercializes these technologies through its structural database products and through drug discovery collaborations with leading pharmaceutical companies. SBI has offices and research facilities in San Diego; Cambridge, Mass. and H0rsholm, Denmark. More information about SBI can be found on the company's Web site at: http://www.strubix.com.