SLN.L Regulatory News (SLN)

24 May 2016

Silence Therapeutics plc (the "Company")

Board Changes

Establishment of Technology Advisory Board

Notice of AGM

Publication of Report and Accounts

Silence Therapeutics Plc, AIM: SLN, a leader in the discovery, development and delivery of novel RNA therapeutics for the treatment of serious diseases, announces changes to the Board, the establishment of a Technology Advisory Board and a senior scientific appointment. The Company also provides details of its Annual General Meeting ("AGM").

Board changes

The Company is pleased to announce that David Ellam will become Chief Financial Officer (CFO) and a director from 18 July 2016. He has previously occupied several senior finance roles within both US & UK publicly owned life science companies, most recently as Senior EUMEA Finance Director at BioMarin Pharmaceuticals Inc. from 2010 to 2016, as CFO of Plethora Solutions Plc (2008-2009) and as Group Financial Controller at Ark Therapeutics Plc (2001-2008). He is a Chartered Accountant.

Current CFO Timothy Freeborn will leave the Board at the annual general meeting (AGM) to be held on 17 June 2016. He will move to Berlin and transition to an operational role as Managing Director of Silence Therapeutics GmbH. Tim will continue his role as CFO until 18 July 2016.

The Board intends to adopt a more-US style board where CEO and CFO are the only executive directors. To this effect, Dr Mike Khan will also retire from the Board at the AGM. He will become a consultant to the Company in translational science. As announced on 5 April 2016, the Company will seek to make further non-executive appointments to the Board.

Technology Advisory Board

The Company is delighted to announce the formation of its Technology Advisory Board (TAB). This is chaired by Dr Jörg Vollmer, who brings over sixteen years of experience in drug discovery and development. He is currently an Executive Board Member at BioRiver and was previously CEO at Nexigen. Prior to Nexigen GmbH, he was Managing Director and Site Head at Pfizer's Oligonucleotide Therapeutics Unit and held various senior positions at Coley Pharmaceuticals. Jörg holds a PhD from the Max-Planck Institute for Immunology and a BSc from the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg.

Professor Kevin Morris will also be part of the TAB. Kevin is Associate Director at the Center for Gene Therapy as well as a professor at City of Hope and the University of New South Wales, Sydney. He was previously Associate Professor at The Scripps Research Institute. Kevin's research focuses on non-coding RNAs and the delivery of therapeutic RNA molecules using different vehicles. Kevin received his BSc from Humboldt State University and his PhD from the University of California Davis.

Silence's TAB is completed by a third member, a former executive within the RNA therapeutics division of a top-tier pharmaceutical company. The Company believes that the combined expertise that these three individuals bring to the team will be highly beneficial to its R&D progress. As technology in the RNA field evolves at an ever-faster rate, the TAB will help to assess our competitive position in technology and offer guidance in developing it.

Senior scientific appointment

Silence is pleased to announce the appointment of Dr Mark Cameron as Head of Chemistry. Mark brings over twenty years of synthetic chemistry experience, having optimised the manufacturing of new drugs for clinical trials. He joins us after spending five years at J-Star Research as Senior Principal Scientist and fifteen years at Merck. Mark held positions of increasing responsibility at Merck, making key contributions to its drugs Invanz and Maxalt prior to moving into the RNA therapeutics group and leading the oligonucleotide synthetic capabilities. He subsequently led a team of medicinal chemists to develop lipid nanoparticles for siRNA delivery. He holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Manchester and a BSc in Applied Chemistry from Huddersfield University.

Notice of AGM and posting of annual report and accounts

The Company will be holding its AGM at 10.00 a.m. on Friday, 17 June 2016 at its offices at 72 Hammersmith Road, London, W14 8TH. Notice of the AGM can also be found on the website in the Investor Relations section.

The Company has posted to shareholders its annual report and accounts for the year ended 31 December 2015. The annual report can also be found online at:

http://silence-therapeutics.com/investors-media/investor-relations/#ResultsReportsPresentations

Ali Mortazavi, Chief Executive Officer of Silence, commented:

"We are delighted to have attracted such high calibre and experienced individuals to join our team. We plan to continue recruiting world-class experts to strengthen our scientific leadership and shareholders can expect further news on senior appointments in the near future. I would like to thank both Tim Freeborn and Mike Khan for the service they have given to the Board of Directors over the past four years and am very pleased that Silence will continue to benefit from them in their new roles. I would like to give a particular thanks to Tim for his unwavering loyalty, work ethic and sheer will to become an expert in RNA therapeutics. This expertise will be invaluable to us in his new role in Berlin. Finally, I welcome David Ellam to the Company and look forward to working closely with him."

The following further information regarding the appointment of David John Ellam, aged 52, is disclosed under Schedule 2(g) of the AIM Rules for Companies:

Directorships with last 5 years and dissolutions (where David Ellam was a director at the time of or within the twelve months preceding such events)

· DJE Interim Ltd - Dissolved via voluntary strike off on 19 February 2013. David was a director until dissolution

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About Silence Therapeutics Plc

Our technology harnesses the body's natural mechanisms to create therapeutic effects within its own cells. This technology can selectively silence or replace any gene in the genome, modulating gene expression up as well as down in a variety of organs and cell types, in vivo. We have developed proprietary modifications to improve the robustness of RNA sequences, together with advanced liposomal chemistries to enhance the delivery of therapeutics.