Full Press Release Details
and Subsidiary LifeMap Sciences Announce Data Mining Collaboration
Sciences' discovery platform will be used to evaluate approximately 100
million proprietary gene expression data points relating to human
embryonic stem cells generated by BioTime scientists
ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 4, 2013--BioTime, Inc. (NYSE
MKT: BTX) and its bioinformatics subsidiary LifeMap Sciences, Inc.
("LifeMap") today announced that they have entered into a definitive
collaboration agreement to utilize LifeMap's computer-based tools to
extract information relating to novel potential commercial products from
nearly 100 million proprietary gene expression data points generated and
owned by BioTime. The assembled data relate to BioTime's proprietary PureStem
progenitor cell lines derived from human embryonic stem cells. The two
companies will share revenues resulting from commercialization of
successful product candidates that are discovered via the collaboration.
BioTime has the right of first refusal to advance, either directly or
via any of its other subsidiaries, selected products under a milestones
and royalty arrangement with LifeMap. LifeMap will have an exclusive
option to advance those products that BioTime chooses not to pursue
itself or via its other subsidiaries.
Human pluripotent stem cells such as human embryonic stem (hES) and
induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells have the important distinction of
being the first human cells ever discovered that are capable of
indefinite scale-up in the stem cell state, with the potential to then
become any of the thousands of different cell types that make up the
human body. The discovery of hES cells in the late 1990s led to the
emerging field called regenerative medicine. BioTime's mission is to
lead in the commercial application of pluripotent stem cell technology
in regenerative medicine by utilizing a number of novel cell
manufacturing platforms such as PureStem human progenitor cell
lines. These hES- or iPS-derived cell lines are relatively pure and
scalable lines of cells that allow the industrial scale-up of
sufficiently large numbers of cells to be potentially useful in treating
a wide array of degenerative diseases including those afflicting an
BioTime scientists have performed thousands of differentiation protocols
with these novel PureStem cell lines using a technology called
"fate space screening". A video describing the novel technology is now
available for viewing at www.biotimeinc.com/corporate-videos/.
This large amount of accumulated data provides deep insights into the
molecular processes involved in human development and advances our
understanding of how to utilize the cells clinically to regenerate
tissues afflicted with disease. While a limited amount of this data has
been published, the majority of the intellectual property is proprietary
to BioTime and will be shared with LifeMap under the new agreement.
Under the collaboration, BioTime and LifeMap scientists will work
closely together to extract from the approximately 100 million
proprietary gene expression data points information expected to lead to
new patent applications for cell-based regenerative therapies. Examples
of cellular therapies needed in medicine include those for the repair of
cartilage, bone, tendon, heart muscle, the vascular system, the retina,
and many others. A brief overview of the proprietary discovery process
invented by LifeMap scientists is shown as part of the video that
describes the fate space screening, which can also be found at www.lifemapsc.com/TherapeuticDiscovery.
The PureStemTM cell lines are a diverse library of
purified cell lines representing young cells intermediate in their
differentiation between the hES cells and the final, mature cells. Each PureStem
cell line has a unique gene expression "signature". This signature is
altered in novel ways when a PureStem cell line is exposed
to different experimental conditions utilizing protein growth and
differentiation factors.
The LifeMap Discovery platform provides the road map that
enables "navigating" each of the PureStem cell
lines to the desired "destination" of a certain mature cell type for use
in treatment. It includes reference gene expression signatures of
thousands of embryonic and mature cell types. LifeMap's scientists match
the signatures of PureStem cell lines to the cells in its
database using tailored bioinformatics computer tools and determine the
identity of PureStem cell lines before and after they are
exposed to various growth and differentiation conditions. In the next
step, PureStem cell lines that may potentially replace, or
rejuvenate, diseased tissues can be identified and later tested for
their therapeutic potential for selected diseases.
Recently, BioTime and LifeMap Sciences, along with another BioTime
subsidiary, OrthoCyte Corporation, reported in the peer-reviewed journal Regenerative
Medicine a means of manufacturing distinct types of cartilage, bone,
and tendon cells from seven of BioTime's proprietary PureStemTM
human embryonic progenitor cell lines, with potential applications for
the repair of different types of bone, cartilage, and tendon for the
treatment of degenerative diseases afflicting these tissue types such as
non-healing bone fractures, osteoarthritis and degeneration of
intervertebral discs, and tendon tears. The data mining collaboration is
expected to yield many additional PureStem cell lines with various
clinical applications for the treatment of degenerative diseases.
"LifeMap Sciences, through its online databases such as GeneCards ,
MalaCards, and LifeMap Discovery , as well as its internal
research team, has assembled one of the world's most powerful molecular
analysis capabilities," said Michael West, PhD, CEO of BioTime and Chief
Scientific Officer of LifeMap. "We have already filed for patent
protection on inventions jointly made by the teams and look forward to
accelerating the pace of development of cures for the deadly
degenerative diseases of aging."
"The BioTime and LifeMap teams collectively believe that this
collaboration has the potential to generate a robust pipeline of
important stem-cell-based treatments for commonly occurring degenerative
diseases," said David Warshawsky, PhD, President and CEO of LifeMap.
"However, it would take the emergence of only a single significant
treatment from this collaboration to make this a seminal event for both
BioTime, headquartered in Alameda, California, is a biotechnology
company focused on regenerative medicine and blood plasma volume
expanders. Its broad platform of stem cell technologies is enhanced
through subsidiaries focused on specific fields of application. BioTime