AKUBIO APPOINTS CEO TO DRIVE DEVELOPMENT OF ACOUSTIC DETECTION TECHNOLOGY
Cambridge, UK, 3rd September 2002 - Akubio Ltd, a UK biotechnology company developing acoustic technology for the rapid detection of infectious diseases and analysis of molecular interactions, today announced the appointment of Dr John Pritchard as CEO.

Dr Pritchard has more than 18 years experience in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology sector, specialising in diagnostics. He was previously Vice President, Research and Development, Diagnostic Products at Genzyme Corporation. Dr Pritchard also held a series of R & D management positions at Boehringer Mannheim, Serono Diagnostics and Amersham International, working on the development of products ranging from blood glucose biosensors and immunoassay analysers to the assessment of novel diagnostic technologies. He joins Akubio from PA Consulting Group where he was a Managing Consultant working on improving product and process development with major UK and US diagnostics and biotechnology companies, as well as start-up organisations. Dr Pritchard holds an MBA from Boston University and a PhD in Biochemistry from Liverpool University.

Akubio was formed in August 2001 by faculty members in the Chemistry Department at the University of Cambridge with seed funding from the life sciences venture capital group, Abingworth, University of Cambridge Challenge Fund and the University of Cambridge. The company's novel acoustic technology has potential applications in the detection of a broad range of viruses, bacteria, cells, proteins, oligonucleotides, drugs and other molecules.

Stephen Bunting, Chairman of Akubio and Managing Director of Abingworth,
said: "We are delighted that John has joined Akubio. It is an exciting company with an extremely promising technology, and we believe John has the experience to drive its development forward."

Dr Pritchard commented: "Akubio's technology is the most exciting I've seen in years. It has an incredible potential breadth of applications, and I look forward to working with the Akubio team in its development and commercialisation."

About Akubio

Akubio was formed in August 2001 to exploit a novel acoustic detection technology developed at the University of Cambridge. The company's Rupture Event Scanning (REVS(tm)) technology has broad potential applications in the diagnosis of clinical infections, as well as in the investigation of molecular interactions in life science research and drug discovery. It works by listening to the sound emitted when molecular interactions are disrupted.

The company uses the same quartz crystals that are found in mobile phones, televisions and radios, which can be made to vibrate using an alternating current. The crystals are coated with a receptor to which particles of the pathogen, molecule or cell in question are attached. The vibration is then increased until the pathogen or molecule becomes dislodged, with an accompanying burst of sound that is detected and amplified by the crystal. As the crystal vibrates loosely bound interfering molecules are dislodged before the measurement is made, increasing the signal to noise ratio of the specific molecule being measured. This results in the technique being highly specific and extremely sensitive -- for example, it can detect a single virus particle in just one microliter of fluid.

Akubio is developing this technology for the life sciences research, drug discovery and diagnostic markets.

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For further information, please contact:
Dr John Pritchard, CEO
+44 7766 415714
jpritchard@akubio.com 

Michelle Lerner, HCC De Facto Group
+44 20 7496 3354
m.lerner@hccdefacto.com