Celera Genomics Appoints James Yee Head of Development.

Business Editors/Health & Medical Writers

BIOWIRE2K

ROCKVILLE, Md.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 17, 2002

Celera Genomics (NYSE:CRA), an Applera Corporation business, announced today that James P. Yee, M.D., Ph.D., has been appointed Head of Development, effective January 6, 2003. Dr. Yee will report to Robert Booth, Ph.D., Senior Vice President of Research & Development, Celera Genomics.

In this new position, Dr. Yee will be responsible for building the development organization at Celera South San Francisco, and for leading therapeutic development activities and clinical trial processes at Celera.

"Jim possesses extensive drug development experience in disease areas of interest to Celera," said Dr. Booth. "Throughout his career, he has demonstrated an ability to build effective development teams and to integrate preclinical and clinical development activities with basic science and business planning."

Dr. Yee has over 20 years of experience in pharmaceutical R&D leadership. In his most recent position, Dr. Yee was Vice President, Clinical and Preclinical Research for the Inflammatory and Viral Diseases Unit at Roche Bioscience. In this role, he led the team that was responsible for the selection and evaluation of compounds for clinical drug development, and oversaw groups responsible for toxicology, drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics, bioanalytical chemistry, analytical chemistry, formulations, regulatory affairs, project management and clinical research.

Previously, Dr. Yee held a variety of research and development positions of increasing responsibility at Syntex Corporation and Roche Pharmaceuticals. Under Dr. Yee's direction, medicines for therapeutic areas including organ transplantation, cardiovascular disease, pain and rheumatology have advanced through phases of clinical development to global commercialization.

About Celera Genomics and Applera Corporation

Applera Corporation comprises two operating groups. The Celera Genomics Group, located in Rockville, MD, and South San Francisco, CA, is engaged principally in integrating advanced technologies to discover and develop new therapeutics. Celera intends to leverage its proteomic, bioinformatic, and genomic capabilities to identify and validate drug targets and diagnostic marker candidates, and to discover and develop new therapeutics. Its Celera Discovery System(TM) online platform, marketed exclusively through the Knowledge Business of Applied Biosystems, is an integrated source of information based on the human genome and other biological and medical sources. The Applied Biosystems Group (NYSE:ABI) develops and markets instrument-based systems, reagents, software, and contract services to the life science industry and research community. Applied Biosystems is headquartered in Foster City, CA, and reported sales of $1.6 billion during fiscal 2002. Celera Diagnostics, a 50/50 joint venture between Applied Biosystems and Celera Genomics, is focused on discovery, development, and commercialization of novel diagnostics products. Information about Applera Corporation, including reports and other information filed by the company with the Securities and Exchange Commission, is available at www.applera.com, or by telephoning 800/762-6923. Information about Celera Genomics is available at www.celera.com.

Note to Editors: Applied Biosystems, Celera, Celera Diagnostics and Celera Genomics are registered trademarks of Applera Corporation or its subsidiaries in the U.S. and certain other countries.