Perlegen Fills Out Leadership Team to Prepare for Multiple Personalized Medicine Programs

Mountain View, CA - February 14, 2008

Perlegen Sciences announced today the successful recruitment of three senior professionals to help position the company to execute an upcoming pipeline of genetic, drug response studies. A leader in discovering and understanding the role that human genetic variation plays in patients’ response to drugs, Perlegen applies next generation re-sequencing and SNP genotyping across the genomes of thousands of patients to determine those variations associated with given traits of interest.

Joining the company’s senior staff are Kevin Cooksy, J.D., Vice President Business Development; Julie Brooks, J.D., General Counsel and Corporate Secretary and Brenda Rogers, P.H.R., Vice President Human Resources.

“With the addition of these key senior team members, Perlegen is positioned to begin delivering on an aggressive pipeline of genetic diagnostic programs,” commented Perlegen CEO Bryan Walser, M.D., “It is a pleasure to welcome Kevin, Julie, and Brenda, each of whom shares our company’s vision and urgency to make a real difference in patient treatments.”

Mr. Cooksy joins Perlegen as Vice President of Business Development. Previously, he served in the corporate development group of Agilent Technologies, most recently completing the $245M acquisition of Stratagene Corporation. Before that, Mr. Cooksy held the positions of Director of Corporate Licensing and Acquisitions, and Director of New Business Opportunities with Nektar Therapeutics, formerly Inhale Therapeutics. He holds a B.Sc. in Chemistry from Northern Illinois University, an M.B.A. degree with distinction from Lake Forest, and a J.D. from the McGeorge School of Law at the University of the Pacific. Mr. Cooksy has been a pro bono counsel and board member of several charitable organizations, and volunteers as a mission pilot for AngelFlight West, a non-profit organization that facilitates access to health care by providing no-cost transportation in private aircraft.

Ms. Brooks joins Perlegen as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. Ms. Brooks has served over 20 years as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at publicly-traded and venture-financed companies, including 10 years as Chief Legal Officer and Corporate Secretary at international medical device and healthcare technology companies. She most recently served as Senior Vice President, Legal & Administration, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Free & Clear, Inc. in Seattle, Washington. Previously, Ms. Brooks served as General Counsel and Corporate Secretary at Westmark International, a publicly traded medical device company spun out of Squibb Corporation, and as Senior Vice President, Legal and Corporate Development, General Counsel and Secretary at Access Health Inc. / McKesson, formerly Access Health, Inc. Ms. Brooks earned a J.D., magna cum laude, from Santa Clara University, a Masters of Law in Taxation from Georgetown University, a B.A., cum laude, in Comparative Literature and an M.B.A. from the University of Washington.

Ms. Rogers joins Perlegen as Vice President of Human Resources. Ms. Rogers has served as a consultant to other Bay Area biotech companies, and most recently held a position as the Vice President, Human Resources at the Institute for OneWorld Health, the first non-profit pharmaceutical development organization in the United States. Prior to that, Ms. Rogers was the Senior H.R. Executive for San Jose State University's Research Foundation and held senior leadership roles at Portal Software and Seagate Technology. Ms. Rogers earned Professional Human Resources (P.H.R.) certification through the Society for Human Resources Management, has completed the University of Michigan's HR Executive Program, and is a member of the class of 2008 of Leadership San Francisco, an organization dedicated to community trusteeship. She earned a Bachelor's degree in Communications from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

About Perlegen Sciences

Perlegen’s mission is to discover and commercialize genetic variations that can make a difference to patients and physicians. The company’s expertise is in understanding human genetic variation within and across diverse patient populations and in conducting studies aimed at identifying those variations that are predictive of drug response, both toxicity and efficacy. For more information about the company and its technologies, visit Perlegen’s website at www.perlegen.com.

Contact:
Perlegen Sciences, Inc.
Robert Middlebrook
Chief Corporate Development Officer
(650) 625-4500

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