Industry Executive to Lead Drug Discovery Programs

MENLO PARK, Calif.– January 26, 2006–SRI International, an independent nonprofit research and development organization, today announced that Nathan Collins, Ph.D., has joined the institute as executive director in its Biosciences Division.

SRI's Biosciences Division provides complete drug and biologic discovery and development services. As a member of the Biosciences management team, Dr. Collins, 41, will play a strategic leadership role at SRI, working collaboratively to fund and expand next-generation drug discovery programs. The drug discovery function creates new opportunities for partnering and licensing, performs basic chemical and biological research into disease mechanisms, and incubates technologies. Dr. Collins will oversee the development of research programs and help to advance into the Biosciences development pipeline new chemical entities that can be developed into therapeutics for commercialization.

Dr. Collins brings exceptional skills to SRI from his long tenure at San Diego-based Discovery Partners International, Inc. (DPI), a small molecule and natural product based drug discovery company that offers collaborations and services complementing the internal capabilities of pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies. Dr. Collins has experience in building and strengthening teams to achieve difficult goals. He also has a strong track record in business development and government contract funding. Most recently a corporate vice president at DPI, Dr. Collins was the architect of a proposal and business plan that won a major bid to host the Molecular Libraries Small Molecule Repository for the National Institutes of Health Roadmap Initiative. Dr. Collins also served as the Steering Committee Co-Chair for a major agreement with Pfizer.

Dr. Collins has a Ph.D. in chemistry and a B.S. (honors) in chemistry and mathematics from the University of Southampton, U.K. He was a post-doctoral research fellow in the University of Arizona's Departments of Chemistry and Biochemistry. He also has been an author or inventor on many publications and patent applications. He is a member of the American Chemical Society, the Society for Bio-molecular Screening and the Product Development and Management Association.

About SRI International
Silicon Valley-based SRI International (www.sri.com) is one of the world's leading independent research and technology development organizations. Founded as Stanford Research institute in 1946, SRI has been meeting the strategic needs of clients for 60 years. The nonprofit research institute performs contract research and development for government agencies, commercial businesses and private foundations. In addition to conducting contract R&D, SRI licenses its technologies, forms strategic partnerships and creates spin-off companies.