Gene Network Sciences Names Departing Merck Head of Genetics Eric Schadt as Co-Chair...

Gene Network Sciences Names Departing Merck Head of Genetics Eric Schadt as
Co-Chair of Scientific Advisory Board

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 7 /PRNewswire/ -- Gene Network Sciences, Inc. today
announced that it named Dr. Eric Schadt, a leading researcher in the field of
genomics-driven drug discovery, co-chair of its Scientific Advisory Board.

Dr. Schadt will be leaving his position as Executive Scientific Director of
Genetics at pharmaceutical giant Merck to join forces with the departing head
of Merck oncology, Dr. Stephen Friend, to create Sage, an open-access
distributed data platform designed to enable collaboration by integrating the
myriad of genomic data sets in the public and private domains. At Merck's
Rosetta subsidiary, Dr. Schadt founded the Genetics department. His work at
Merck focused on elucidating the genetic circuitry of common human diseases
such as type 2 diabetes and obesity using novel integrative genomics
approaches based on genetic and molecular profiling data. He has helped define
a new field in network biology -- the genetics of gene expression, or
"integrative genomics." Dr. Schadt's pioneering work in integrative genomics
has been published in a series of groundbreaking papers, culminating in two
seminal Nature papers in 2008 that revealed the genetic circuitry underlying
obesity and metabolic disease.

Dr. Schadt is also an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Biostatistics
at the University of Washington in Seattle, and he was recently appointed as a
Fellow in the Institute of Synthetic and Systems Biology at Imperial College
London. Prior to joining Rosetta, Dr. Schadt was a Senior Research Scientist
at Roche Bioscience. He received his B.S. in applied mathematics/computer
science from California Polytechnic State University, his M.A. in pure
mathematics from UCD, and his Ph.D. in bio-mathematics from UCLA.

"I am looking forward to the opportunity to assist GNS in their efforts to
accelerate the medical impact that is starting to be reaped from the emerging
field of integrative genomics," said Dr. Schadt. "Among biosimulation
companies, GNS's REFS(TM) platform is the best available technology to turn
integrative genomics data into actionable knowledge for drug discovery and
development."

Dr. Schadt will join renowned computational biologist Dr. James Collins of
Boston University to serve together as co-chairs of GNS's Scientific Advisory
Board.

"We are pleased to welcome the world's leading expert on the application of
integrative genomics in pharmaceutical drug discovery," said Colin Hill, CEO
of GNS. "The addition of Dr. Schadt to our Scientific Advisory Board
exemplifies GNS's commitment to bring together the best scientific minds and
technology to use supercomputer-driven modeling and simulation approaches to
transform drug discovery and development and bring breakthrough treatments to
patients in need."

About Gene Network Sciences

Gene Network Sciences (http://www.gnsbiotech.com/) is a leader in
biosimulation with its ability to derive molecular mechanisms of drugs and
diseases directly from molecular profiling and clinical data. Based in
Cambridge, Massachusetts, and Ithaca, New York, GNS uses its REFS(TM)
technology in pharmaceutical and healthcare settings to rapidly turn
combinations of genetic, genomic, and clinical measurements into models of
disease progression and drug response. These models are then simulated to
discover both new targets for drug intervention and genetic markers of drug
response that allow patients who will respond to a given drug treatment to be
matched to a particular clinical trial and treatment option. By discovering
how and why specific sets of genes and drug candidates impact human biology,
GNS technology enables the rapid development of breakthrough drug and
diagnostic products and the matching of patients to the optimal therapy.

SOURCE Gene Network Sciences, Inc.

Thomas Neyarapally of Gene Network Sciences, Inc., +1-617-494-0492 ext. 238