Tuesday March 16, 8:33 am ET

LOS ANGELES, March 16 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- CytRx Corporation announced today that Robert H. Brown, Jr., M.D., D.Phil., Founder and Director of the Cecil B. Day Laboratory for Neuromuscular Research at Massachusetts General Hospital, has joined the company's Scientific Advisory Board.

In 1993, Dr. Brown was among the scientists that discovered that a mutation in the SOD1 gene causes the familial, or inherited, form of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). ALS is commonly known in the U.S. as Lou Gehrig's disease. In October 2003, CytRx initiated a research program at the Cecil B. Day Laboratory to target the mutant SOD1 gene in familial ALS patients using RNAi technology, licensed to CytRx by the University of Massachusetts Medical School, and developed by Zuoshang Xu, M.D., Ph.D., of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. About 10% of all ALS cases are the familial form, which will be the initial target of CytRx's program with Massachusetts General Hospital.

"Dr. Brown has conducted substantial research and a large number of clinical trials in ALS since founding the Day Lab in 1984. We recognized the level of expertise at the Day Lab and realized the tremendous benefit to CytRx through an expanded relationship with Dr. Brown," said Steven A. Kriegsman, CytRx's Chief Executive Officer.

Dr. Brown, a Professor of Neurology at Harvard Medical School, is globally recognized as being at the forefront of research in neuromuscular diseases. He and his colleagues have made many contributions to ALS research, including identifying three genes involved with the inherited form of the disease. Dr. Brown is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and completed his doctoral training in neurophysiology at Oxford University.

"I am very hopeful that the collaboration with CytRx will allow us to use RNAi to develop a treatment for ALS," said Dr. Brown.