New Haven, Connecticut, January 8, 2003 -- Rib-X Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held biotechnology company focused on the design and development of the next generation of antibiotics to fight multidrug-resistant bacteria, announced today the appointment of another world-renowned ribosome scientist Venki Ramakrishnan, PhD to the Rib-X Scientific Advisory Board (SAB).

Dr. Ramakrishnan joins the Company founder team of advisors who are also ribosome structure experts. This team includes Drs. Thomas Steitz and Peter Moore of Yale University and Dr. Harry Noller of University of California, Santa Cruz, and Dr. John Abelson of the California Institute of Technology. This appointment brings the total number of SAB members to eight.

"One of our greatest accomplishments at Rib-X has been the success we have had in bringing the best possible people onto our team," said Dr. Susan Froshauer, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rib-X. "Venki is a world leader in research focused on the structure and function of the ribosome, having received international recognition for his determination of the atomic structure of the 30S subunit of the ribosome, and we are very fortunate to have him join our Scientific Advisory Board."

Dr. Ramakrishnan is currently a Group Leader in the Medical Research Council (MRC) Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. He has published approximately 50 research papers pertaining to ribosomal studies. Internationally recognized for his achievement in determining the atomic structure of the 30S ribosomal subunit and its complexes with several antibiotics, he mapped the arrangement of proteins in the 30S subunit by neutron diffraction and solved X-ray structures of individual components and their RNA complexes early in his career. Dr. Ramakrishnan earned his Bachelor of Science degree in physics from Baroda University in India and his Ph.D. in Physics from Ohio University. He pursued further post-graduate studies at The University of California, San Diego. Recently, Dr. Ramakrishnan received the high honor of election to the Royal Society.

"It is a pleasure to be invited to work along side people who share my level of commitment to the study and utilization of the ribosome as a drug discovery target," said Dr. Ramakrishnan. "Rib-X has made remarkable strides in the relatively short life of the company and I am confident their extraordinary technology will serve an instrumental role in our collective quest for a new class of antibiotics."

About Rib-X Pharmaceuticals

Rib-X Pharmaceuticals is a small molecule drug discovery company focused on the structure-based design of new classes of anti-infective agents. The Company's drug discovery strategy is focused on the exploitation of its proprietary high-resolution crystal structure of the 50S subunit of the ribosome, which performs an essential role in the fundamental process of protein synthesis, and to which many known antibiotics bind. The 50S is the target for many clinically important classes of antibiotics, including those used to treat both community-acquired and hospital pathogens. The Company's integrated research approach combines state of the art, proprietary computational analysis, X-ray crystallography, medicinal chemistry, microbiology and biochemistry, allowing for the rapid synthesis of new agents, which avoid typical antibiotic resistance mechanisms. Utilizing these tools, Rib-X has what amounts to a map of the 50S subunit of the ribosome. The Company is utilizing this advantage in the optimization of leads and the creation of new classes of antibiotics.

For more information on the Rib-X mission, please visit the Company website.

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