Celera Corporation (NASDAQ:CRA) today announced the appointment of H. Robert Superko, M.D., to the newly created position of Vice President, Chief of Medical Affairs at Celera, effective June 1, 2009. In this role, Dr. Superko will provide medical leadership for Celera’s cardiovascular products and services through oversight of education programs and participation in relevant medical associations, professional societies and groups responsible for the establishment of guidelines regarding the adoption of new diagnostics. Dr. Superko will report to Kathy Ordoñez, Celera’s Chief Executive Officer.

Dr. Superko is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, the American College of Sports Medicine and the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation. He is currently the Executive Director at the Center for Genomics and Human Health at St. Joseph’s Translational Research Institute in Atlanta, GA. He is also the Principal Investigator of the “Firefighter Heart Disease Prevention Program”, which is being funded by the Department of Homeland Security in Washington, DC. He is Clinical Professor in the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Mercer University in Atlanta, GA, and has held various research and clinical positions at several institutions around the United States since completing his medical fellowship at the University of California at Davis in 1980. Dr. Superko was also a founder of Berkeley HeartLab in 1996.

“We are delighted that Robert has joined Celera to provide medical oversight to our cardiovascular programs, and to serve as the lead interface with the cardiovascular medical community,” said Ms. Ordoñez. “We believe Robert’s experience in helping facilitate clinical utilization of novel diagnostics will be important to our success as we seek to have tests, such Berkeley HeartLab’s KIF6 laboratory developed test, adopted broadly by the medical community.”

Dr. Superko sits on the editorial boards of several prestigious journals including the Journal of Cardiovascular Risk and Preventative Cardiology. He has published more than 120 peer-reviewed articles and chapters in the area of lipid metabolism, exercise physiology and cardiac rehabilitation, and he has written a number of books including, “Before the Heart Attacks” published in 2003. Dr. Superko currently sits on committees at the American Heart Association, the Trans Catheter Therapeutics Scientific Advisory Committee, American Heart Association Atherosclerotic Peripheral Vascular Disease Committee, and the Atlanta American Heart Association Board.