[2] PE Biosystems and Symyx Technologies, Inc., Sign Agreement to Develop Specialty Polymers to Speed DNA Sequencing.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

FOSTER CITY, Calif. and SANTA CLARA, Calif.-- (BW HealthWire)--Jan. 5, 2000

PE Biosystems (NYSE:PEB), a PE Corporation business, and Symyx Technologies, Inc., (Nasdaq:SMMX) announced today a strategic collaboration to develop Symyx' proprietary polymer synthesis materials and methods for use in the analysis of DNA.

The collaboration is the first to result from Symyx' internal efforts to discover, develop and commercialize proprietary materials in the areas of specialty polymers, fine chemical catalysts and electronic materials.

Symyx and PE Biosystems will jointly design polymers as well as the methods and instrumentation for screening those polymers. Symyx will make and screen the polymers for use in nucleic acid separations. PE Biosystems will develop and commercialize successful polymer candidates. Under terms of the two-year agreement, Symyx will receive payments for development funding and late stage licensing royalties on any products commercialized as a result of this collaboration. In addition, Symyx will receive a payment for transfer of existing development compounds.

"We are excited about this opportunity to enhance our polymer technology portfolio, building upon our past success," said Michael W. Hunkapiller, president of PE Biosystems and senior vice president of PE Corporation.

As the leader in providing researchers with genetic analysis tools, since the 1986 introduction of the first automated DNA sequencer, PE Biosystems has continued to introduce improvements in instrumentation, chemistry and software as well as polymer technology. The collaboration with Symyx is directed toward producing new polymers that will meet the increased speed and accuracy needs of today's researchers studying whole genomes and comparing DNA sequences from many individuals to standard sequences from databases.

"We are pleased to partner with PE Biosystems in our first collaboration based on materials and methods resulting from Symyx' internal programs," stated Steven Goldby, Symyx chairman and chief executive officer.

"The collaboration will integrate PE Biosystems' core strengths in system solutions to life science applications, including instrumentation, reagents and software with Symyx' expertise in developing specialty polymers and polymer formulations using high speed combinatorial techniques."

PE Corporation comprises two operating groups. The PE Biosystems Group (NYSE:PEB), with sales of $1.2 billion during fiscal 1999, develops and markets instrument-based systems, reagents, software and contract services to the life science industry and research community. PE Biosystems is headquartered in Foster City, Calif., and comprises four divisions: Applied Biosystems, PE Informatics, PerSeptive Biosystems, and Tropix. Celera Genomics Group (NYSE:CRA), headquartered in Rockville, Md., intends to become the definitive source of genomic and related medical information. Information about the company is available on the worldwide web at www.pecorporation.com or by phoning 800/762-6923.

Symyx develops and applies combinatorial technologies to the discovery of materials for the electronics and chemical industries, through research collaborations, technology access and for its own proprietary programs. Symyx was founded by Dr. Alejandro C. Zaffaroni, founder of ALZA Corporation, DNAX Research Institute, Affymax N.V. and Affymetrix, and Dr. Peter G. Schultz, head of the Novartis Institute for Functional Genomics and professor of chemistry at the Scripps Research Institute.

Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking. These may be identified by the use of forward-looking words or phrases such as "believe," "expect," "intend," "anticipate," "should," "planned," "estimated," and "potential," among others. These forward-looking statements are based on PE Corporation's current expectations. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 provides a "safe harbor" for such forward-looking statements. In order to comply with the terms of the safe harbor, PE Corporation notes that a variety of factors could cause actual results and experience to differ materially from the anticipated results or other expectations expressed in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties that may affect the operations, performance, development, and results of PE Biosystems businesses include but are not limited to (1) rapidly changing technology and dependence on new products; (2) sales dependent on customers' capital spending policies and government-sponsored research; (3) claims for patent infringement; (4) significant overseas operations; (5) future growth strategy; (6) uncertainty of success of Year 2000 compliance plan; (7) earthquakes; and (8) other factors that might be described from time to time in PE Corporation's filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Any statements contained in this release that relate to plans or objectives of Symyx for future operations or business strategies, future operating performance or projections of revenues, earnings or other financial items, are forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties, many of which are beyond Symyx' control. Symyx' actual results could differ materially from those contemplated by these forward-looking statements as a result of numerous factors, which include the novel nature of our combinatorial materials discovery technologies and processes, our dependence on the research and development activities of companies in the chemical industry, our inability to predict the pace, quality or number of discoveries of new materials we may generate, our dependence on our collaboration with major companies, uncertainties related to our new Discovery Tools business, possible future fluctuations in our results of operations, our need to attract and retain key personnel and competition. These and other risk factors which could cause our actual results of operations to differ from or forward-looking statements are set forth in greater detail in documents we file with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including our Prospectus dated November 18, 1999 relating to our initial public offering. Readers are cautioned not to place undo reliance on these forward-looking statements, which speak only as of the date hereof. Symyx undertakes no obligation to publicly release the results of any revisions to these forward-looking statements that may be made to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof or to reflect the occurrence of unanticipated events.