FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACTS:

LJL BIOSYSTEMS, INC.:         MEDIA RELATIONS:         INVESTOR RELATIONS:

Larry Tannenbaum              Friestedt International       Financial Relations
CFO and Senior Vice President Susanne Friestedt             Board
(408) 548-0542                (619) 223-8844
LTannenbaum@LJLbio.com        friestintl@aol.com       Lise Needham (general
                                                            info)
                                                       Kate Rajeck (analyst
                                                            contact)
                                                       Scott Marx (media)
                                                       (415) 986-1591
                                                       ker@sf.frbd.com

                                       
              LJL BIOSYSTEMS RAISES $7.0 MILLION PRIVATE PLACEMENT
                 JOHN DIEKMAN, PH.D., JOINS BOARD OF DIRECTORS


SUNNYVALE, CA, JANUARY 27, 1999 -- LJL BioSystems, Inc. (Nasdaq: LJLB), a 
leading manufacturer of High Throughput Screening (HTS) products for 
accelerated drug discovery today announced it raised $7 million in a private 
placement of 2 million shares of unregistered Common Stock.  

Bay City Capital, a leading investor in the life sciences industry and The 
Kaufmann Fund, an emerging growth company mutual fund co-lead this 
investment. As part of this transaction, John Diekman, a Managing Director of 
Bay City Capital, will join LJL's Board of Directors.

"Bay City and the Kaufmann Fund are well respected institutional investors in 
healthcare today. We look forward to their contributions as we continue to 
build value for LJL shareholders. The capital infusion from this financing 
will support an expanded effort to grow LJL's installed base of HTS systems 
at pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies around the world. The new 
funding will also help us accelerate development and commercialization of new 
consumable products, such as assay kits, plates, and reagents, an important 
element of our business strategy," said Lev Leytes, LJL's President and Chief 
Executive Officer.
 
"The addition of John Diekman to our Board of Directors provides us with 
tremendous industry experience. John has worked closely with global 
pharmaceutical leaders to commercialize technologies that are transforming 
the industry.  Furthermore, John has extensive experience in drug discovery 
as well as in directing the strategic growth of several successful 
companies," Leytes added.

Dr. Diekman has more than 20 years of experience in drug discovery and 
pharmaceutical organizations including roles as CEO or President at 
Affymetrix, Affymax, Monoclonal Antibodies, Salutar and Zoecon.  He is 
currently a director of several public and private companies and is on the 
Board of Trustees of the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla. 



"As Bay City Capital worked with LJL to put this transaction together, we 
became convinced that LJL is implementing an intelligent and powerful 
approach to a truly significant market opportunity," said Diekman. " We look 
forward to contributing as an investor and board member to LJL's success."

Skip Klein, health care analyst for The Kaufmann Fund said, "The potential in 
the High Throughput Screening market is significant as the explosion brought 
on by genomics and combinatorial chemistry makes HTS crucial to every 
pharmaceutical and biotechnology company.  I first heard about LJL from 
satisfied customers as well as from competitors.  LJL's customers are excited 
and supportive of their distributive approach to HTS.  I believe they have a 
great opportunity as their installed equipment base grows and they further 
expand their consumables offering.  Clearly, the gold rush is on, and LJL is 
in an unique provider of picks and shovels."

The securities sold in this private placement have not been registered in the 
United States under the Securities Act of 1933. The company will register the 
shares at a future date.  The company offered the shares directly to 
investors and used Hambrecht & Quist as its financial advisor.  LJL now has 
approximately 12.5 million shares of Common Stock outstanding.