Cylex(TM) Elects Richard A. Sandberg as Independent Director

COLUMBIA, Md., March 10 /PRNewswire/ -- Cylex announced today the election of Richard A. ("Dick") Sandberg, founder of DIANON Systems, as an independent director on the Company's board.

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Brad L. Stewart, chairman of the board and CEO of Cylex states, "Dick's leadership and achievements in diagnostics are a perfect match for Cylex.  With the guidance of Dick and the board, we will continue to build a valuable diagnostics platform to monitor patients' immune status."

Mr. Sandberg adds, "Cylex's technology, ImmuKnow®, creates an entirely new tool to help identify transplant patients at risk of infection due to over-immunosuppression, with promising potential in other areas outside of transplant."

"Dick brings with him deep operational expertise in building and running international diagnostics businesses.  This is a landmark step in Cylex's vision to become a global player in immunity-related diagnostics," said Stephen Bloch, MD, General Partner with Canaan Partners and a director of Cylex.

Greg Shearer, founder and principal of Channel Medical Partners stated, "Dick's extensive background and recognized contributions to the diagnostics field make him the ideal candidate to build on Cylex's growth.  In particular, his close connection to clinical diagnostics and his wealth of knowledge, skill and experience will be important assets to the board."

With the addition of Mr. Sandberg to the board, Tracy Marshbanks, PhD, Managing Director of First Analysis, will assume a role as an observer to Cylex's board.

Mr. Stewart affirmed, "We are extremely appreciative of Dr. Marshbanks' service on the board during the past two years and equally grateful to him for agreeing to remain as a board observer.  Cylex will continue to benefit from Dr. Marshbanks' experience in the life sciences industry."

About Richard A. ("Dick") Sandberg

An experienced and engaged executive officer, Mr. Sandberg works to launch and develop new medical diagnostic companies.  His record of success includes DIANON Systems Inc., where he was founder, chairman, CEO and chief financial officer.  The publicly traded oncology marketing and database company provide anatomic and clinical pathology services, patient information and business solutions to physicians. Mr. Sandberg also served as chairman and CFO of Lifecodes Corporation, a privately-held DNA testing technology firm; CFO and board member of Matritech Inc. (AMEX;MZT), a publicly-traded biotechnology company specializing in proteomic diagnostic products; CFO and board member of Critical Diagnostics Inc., a privately-held cardiac diagnostic company commercializing new technology licensed from the Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston; and is the board chairman of Oxford Immunotec Ltd., a privately-held diagnostic company focusing on tuberculosis.

About Cylex, Inc.

Cylex is a privately held global life science company that is the leader in the development and manufacture of in vitro diagnostic products. ImmuKnow is the in vitro diagnostic utilized to detect cell-mediated immunity (CMI) in an immunosuppressed population, and is increasingly being adopted at organ transplant centers throughout the United States and abroad. The Company's patented technology provides an innovative platform allowing clinical researchers to simply and reproducibly measure CMI for the development of new diagnostics, biomarkers and companion assays. The company is based in Columbia, MD USA. For more information, visit www.cylex.net.

About ImmuKnow

ImmuKnow is a noninvasive biomarker of immune function that assesses cellular immune status by detecting cell-mediated immunity (CMI) in adult immunosuppressed patients. It measures the concentration of adenosine triphosphate (ATP) released from CD4 cells following cell stimulation. The ImmuKnow test is a qualitative assay and does not directly quantify the level of immunosuppression.  Results of the ImmuKnow assay should be used in conjunction with clinical presentation, medical history, and other clinical indicators when assessing the immune status of any individual patient. For more information, visit www.cylex.net.

About Canaan Partners

Canaan Partners invests in visionary entrepreneurs and provides them the networks, insights and operational guidance required to build high-performance technology and healthcare companies.  Founded in 1987, the firm has raised eight funds and completed more than 77 acquisitions and 52 IPOs.  With $3 billion under management and a worldwide footprint, the firm's healthcare team is committed to catalyzing the growth of biopharmaceutical, medical device and diagnostics companies that are revolutionizing the practice of medicine.  Among its successes are BiPar Sciences, a biopharmaceutical company pioneering novel tumor-selective therapies to address urgent unmet needs of cancer patients; Cerexa Inc., one of the largest biotech acquisitions of 2007; DexCom Inc., the largest diagnostic IPO of 2005; and Amicus Therapeutics, a pioneer of next-generation oral therapies for the management of human genetic diseases. Other Canaan healthcare investments include AdvancedBioHealing, Calibra Medical, Chimerix, Inc., Liquidia Technologies, Transcend Medical and VaxInnate.  Canaan has offices in California, Connecticut, India and Israel.  For more information, visit www.canaan.com.

About Channel Medical Partners

Channel Medical Partners is a leading emerging growth investor in medical technology companies. This stage of financing has historically represented a narrow channel or bottleneck for emerging growth companies – the point in their development between the substantial capital provided by earlier stage venture capital investors and that provided by institutions focused primarily on public companies. The firm has a demonstrated record of success in not only providing capital, but in enabling and ensuring the commercial success of its portfolio companies. The principals at Channel believe that the commercialization process has emerged as a critical activity at venture-backed companies and that their success has, in part, been driven by this trend.  For more information, visit www.chanmed.com.

SOURCE Cylex, Inc.

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