RNS Number:5593J
VASTox plc
10 March 2005


For immediate release                                              10 March 2005



                                   VASTox plc
                          ("VASTox" or "the Company")

              Appointments to the Scientific Advisory Board (SAB)

Oxford, UK: 10 March 2005 - VASTox plc (AIM: VOX), the Oxford-based drug
discovery and services business focused on chemical genomics, is pleased to
announce that it has appointed three new members to its Scientific Advisory
Board. They include Professor Francesco Muntoni, Professor Roger Patient and Dr
Marcel van den Heuvel.

Professor Francesco Muntoni is Professor of Paediatric Neurology at Imperial
College London.  Professor Muntoni completed his medical training in Child
Neurology and Psychiatry in 1989.  Since then he has worked primarily on
clinical, genetic and therapeutic aspects of childhood neuromuscular disorders
initially in Italy and from 1993 in London.  Originally appointed as Lecturer at
the Neuromuscular Centre of the Hammersmith Hospital, he was made Head of the
Unit in 1996 and Professor of Paediatric Neurology since 1998.  In March 2004,
Professor Muntoni was appointed Principal Investigator of a UK Government backed
consortium investigating treatments for Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.

Professor Roger Patient is Research Professor at the Weatherall Institute of
Molecular Medicine, University of Oxford.  He was Professor of Molecular
Genetics at King's College London and Professor of Genetics at the University of
Nottingham prior to his current post.  Professor Patient was one of the first
people, more than 10 years ago, to work on zebrafish (Danio rerio) in the UK and
has tremendous knowledge of zebrafish systems for scientific testing.  At the
Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine, his research is focused on the
genetic regulatory networks of blood and the cardiovascular system.

Dr Marcel van den Heuvel is Group Leader at the Medical Research Council
Functional Genetics Unit, University of Oxford.  Dr van den Heuvel completed his
doctorate training at the Netherlands Cancer Institute partly in Amsterdam and
partly in Palo Alto, California at Stanford University.  Dr van den Heuvel has
worked on fruitflies (Drosophila melanogaster) for more than fifteen years using
them to study developmental signalling pathways.  He published in Nature in 1996
on a pathway called Hedgehog, identified through his work on fruitflies.
Hedgehog is now an accepted target for treatment of cancers in people.  His
current research analyses fruitfly homologues of genes that cause disease in
humans, and has already generated a model system for the human disease Spinal
Muscular Atrophy.

Professor Kay Davies CBE, FRS, Chair of the SAB of VASTox, commented: "The
appointment of Marcel, Roger and Francesco clearly strengthens the Scientific
Advisory Board in multiple areas of science and technology development.  By
adding to our core team, we have expanded our network to ensure we maintain
leadership in all our areas of interest."

Dr Steven Lee, CEO of VASTox, commented: "I congratulate Kay on strengthening
the SAB with such high calibre individuals.  VASTox was created from excellence
in science, and its long-term business growth will come from leveraging its
relationships in academia. These appointments demonstrate that we are committed
to continually improving and strengthening our core technologies in addition to
signing commercial deals."


                                    --ENDS-

Contact details:
VASTox                                                            01865 316917
Steven Lee, Chief Executive Officer

Buchanan Communications                                           020 7466 5000
Tim Anderson / Mark Court / Mary-Jane Johnson

Note for Picture Editors:

High resolution images are available for the media to view and download free of
charge from http://www.vismedia.co.uk

Notes for Editors:

About VASTox

VASTox is a chemical genomics technology company that both provides services to
the pharmaceutical industry, and discovers and develops proprietary novel drugs.
The company's technology platform aims to use high volume, high content
screening using zebrafish and fruitflies to provide a high level of
predictability of the efficacy and toxicity of potential drug compounds in
humans which has the potential to dramatically decrease the time and cost of
drug discovery and development. VASTox was formed in January 2003, from the
University of Oxford, by some of the UK's foremost scientists who have taken a
highly creative approach to the problems involved in drug discovery and who have
a proven record in delivering technological excellence.  The company listed on
the London Stock Exchange AIM in October 2004.




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            The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
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