Celera’s headquarters moving to California

Rockville biotech a pioneer in human genome efforts

Once the separation is finalized by the companies and with federal approval, Celera intends to maintain its proteomics group of about 30 employees in Rockville, said spokesman David Speechly. The company has 550 employees.

Founded by J. Craig Venter to complete the human genome and sell genomic data, Celera has in recent years evolved into strictly a diagnostics business, still largely based on genomics, to deliver personalized disease management products and services, such as a heart attack screening test slated for marketing soon.

For the first time, Celera recently reported profits in consecutive quarters, one of the main reasons for the proposed separation, Speechly said.

‘‘When Celera was incurring substantial losses, this one company’s losses would offset gains at Advanced Biosystems, a benefit to Applera for tax purposes,” Speechly said. ‘‘Now moving toward profitability, this becomes less of an argument.”

Celera executives also favor the change, he said, to increase management’s focus and help its investors analyze future acquisitions. He said investors and other shareholders will have a better sense of tracking the company.

Following the separation, Applera expects Celera to be listed for trading on the Nasdaq as CRA.

Speechly insisted that Celera is not leaving Maryland entirely, although Applera’s announcement caught the attention of the Montgomery County economic development officials. Janis Peters, senior business development specialist, said the county ‘‘is very interested in understanding their needs and we are in the process of determining how we can help them.”

At the end of 2007, Celera acquired two companies: 300-employee Berkeley HeartLab Inc. for about $195 million, and Atria Genetics Inc. of South San Francisco, a privately held company with 13 employees for $33 million. Atria has a line of human leukocyte antigen testing products that are used for identifying potential donors in the matching process for bone marrow transplantation, and will fit into a research partnership Celera has with Abbott Laboratories.

Berkeley HeartLab ‘‘is a cardiovascular health care company and we have been doing a great deal of work in cardiovascular around genetics,” Speechly said. Its acquisition will help Celera market its new heart attack prediction test. HeartLab is validating the test, which is based on a gene variant called KIF6. Studies published by Celera and Applera in January show that in more than 30,000 individuals, carriers of KIF6 have as much as a 55 percent increased risk of a coronary episode.

For the quarter ended Dec. 31, Celera reported net income of $300,000, compared with a net loss of $500,000 in the prior-year quarter.