InforMax Announces GenoMax License Agreement With Windber Research Institute

Business Wire, July 31, 2001

Business Editors

BETHESDA, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--July 31, 2001

InforMax, Inc. (Nasdaq:INMX), a leading global provider of bioinformatics software solutions, today announced that in the second quarter ending June 30, 2001 it signed a license agreement with the Windber Research Institute (Windber, PA) for the GenoMax(TM) enterprise software system.

This agreement includes software license, system support, and professional services.

Rapidly becoming an industry standard, GenoMax is an enterprise bioinformatics system that supports High-Throughput Research(TM) (HTR), InforMax's process for minimizing the time and cost of both discovering and validating valuable targets for pharmaceutical, therapeutic, and diagnostic development.

GenoMax is a modular family of analysis programs designed to work with one or more types of genomic and proteomic data including sequence information, gene expression data, protein structure, and protein-protein interactions. The GenoMax enterprise platform is used by more than 30 biopharmaceutical companies worldwide to leverage InforMax's data mining and analysis capabilities.

"Managing and mining experimental data is critical to an improved understanding of disease processes. InforMax is pleased to have been selected by the Windber Research Institute as the solution provider to enable their discovery research efforts in the area of breast cancer," said Alex Titomirov, president and CEO of InforMax. Windber Research Institute is an offsite research laboratory for the Clinical Breast Care Project (CBCP) of the Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, DC. "We look forward to working with Windber to implement our software and provide the professional services to ensure their success."

The Windber Research Institute (WRI) is currently one of the only fully integrated research facilities designed from the onset to be a national tissue repository linked to a functional genomics and proteomics laboratory and equipped for high throughput parallel characterization of tissue specimens to generate biologically relevant information at the DNA, RNA and protein levels.

Mr. Nick Jacobs, President/CEO of Windber Medical Center and Windber Research Institute, said he is happy to be associated with InforMax, an industry leader in bioinformatics. "We believe that this association will be the beginning of mutually beneficial collaborations between Informax and the Windber Research Institute." LTC Craig Shriver MD, FACS, Chief of General Surgery and CBCP Program Director, Walter Reed Army Medical Center, believes that GenoMax will provide the genome analysis and data mining solutions needed by the CBCP for better understanding of the genetic basis for breast cancer.

About Windber Research Institute

The Windber Research Institute (WRI) is a newly established state of the art biomedical research organization in scenic western Pennsylvania. WRI, which is funded through the Henry M. Jackson Foundation, Rockville, MD, was established to conduct functional genomics and proteomics research for the comprehensive Clinical Breast Care Project (CBCP) of Walter Reed Army Medical Center (WRAMC), Washington DC and the Joyce Murtha Breast Care Center (JMBCC), Windber, PA.

WRI is using a variety of biological, bioimaging, high-density cDNA and protein profiling, Laser capture micro dissection and computational tools to carry out cutting-edge research focused on identifying disease-related molecular mechanisms associated with breast disorders, said Dr Richard I. Somiari, the Scientific Director.

WRI's close affiliation with Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington DC, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, MD, Windber Medical Center, Windber, the Conemaugh Health System, and all partners in the tissue banking initiative, means that clinically relevant information associated with each specimen is obtained and directly linked with the laboratory data in a central database.

About InforMax

InforMax (Nasdaq:INMX) is a leading global developer of bioinformatics software for High-Throughput Research(TM). Founded in 1990, today InforMax products are used by 1,870 research organizations and more than 25,000 individual scientists worldwide (as of March 31, 2001) to understand and extract value from the massive amounts of data being generated by the Genomic Revolution.

Among the Company's customers are 23 of the top 25 pharmaceutical companies. The Company's mission is to support the scientific community in drug discovery and to better understand the causes of disease. Our High-Throughput Research(TM) and comprehensive suite of bioinformatics software solutions help scientists increase the effectiveness and reduce the time and investment it takes to identify and validate biological targets and discover effective treatments for disease.

InforMax bioinformatics software solutions enable a full range of gene-to-genome analysis, interpretation and data mining. Its market-leading products include Vector NTI(R) Suite, the most widely used software suite for enhancing laboratory productivity, and GenoMax (TM) for integrated analysis of genomic and proteomic data. Additional information about InforMax can be found at the Company's Web site at http://www.informaxinc.com.