Full Press Release Details
and Subsidiary LifeMap Sciences Announce the Launch of LifeMap
ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--November 14, 2012--BioTime, Inc. (NYSE
MKT: BTX) and its subsidiary LifeMap Sciences have announced the launch
of LifeMap BioReagents (http://bioreagents.lifemapsc.com/),
a new portal offering researchers access to BioTime's research product
lines including PureStem human progenitor cell lines, PureStem
packages, clinical and research grade human embryonic stem cell lines
(hES), HyStem hydrogels, culture media, and cell
differentiation kits.
LifeMap Sciences will be the principle marketing and sales arm for
BioTime's cell-based products and related reagents for the research
community in academia, research hospitals, and biotech and pharma
companies. LifeMap Sciences holds the exclusive, worldwide license to
market GeneCards (www.genecards.org),
with over 12 million page visits per year from hundreds of thousands of
unique users worldwide, and MalaCards (www.malacards.org),
and plans to launch LifeMap Discovery , its database for
biomedical and stem cell research, later this quarter.
LifeMap BioReagents is integrated with the GeneCards ,
MalaCards, and LifeMap Discovery databases, thereby
providing a large number of biomedical researchers accessing these
databases a means of identifying stem cell reagents that can enhance
research and discovery efforts in a variety of fields, including stem
cell research, developmental biology, mechanisms of various human
diseases, drug discovery and therapeutic discovery and development.
"There has been growing interest in the PureStem and hES cell lines,"
stated Yaron Guan-Golan, Head of Marketing at LifeMap Sciences. "Our
ability to provide stable, characterized, pure, and scalable cell lines
to the research community and to industry is a big step forward-not only
in the study of stem cells, but also in the understanding of cellular
and developmental biology and human disease, and in the discovery of new
therapies. Together with our LifeMap Discovery database,
researchers will now be able to immediately obtain access to
cutting-edge embryonic stem and progenitor cell lines as part of a
wealth of developmental and stem cell information that they need for
About LifeMap Sciences, Inc.
LifeMap Sciences' (www.lifemapsc.com) core technology and
business is based on its integrated database suite, the discovery
platform for biomedical and stem cell research. This platform includes GeneCards ,
the leading human gene database; LifeMap Discovery , the
database of embryonic development, stem cell research, and regenerative
medicine; and MalaCards, the human disease database. LifeMap
Sciences also markets PanDaTox, an innovative, recently
developed, searchable database that can aid in the discovery of new
antibiotics and biotechnologically beneficial products.
In addition to database offerings, LifeMap Sciences is BioTime's
principal marketing subsidiary for research products, including PureStem
human progenitor cell lines, GMP human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines, ESpan
growth media for progenitor cell lines, and cell differentiation media
for non-therapeutic uses, via its LifeMap BioReagents
portal. LifeMap Sciences will utilize its databases as part of its
online marketing strategy to reach life sciences researchers at biotech
and pharmaceutical companies and at academic institutions and research
hospitals worldwide.
In a therapeutic discovery collaboration with BioTime, LifeMap's
scientists utilize LifeMap's proprietary platform, including LifeMap
Discovery , its stem cell database along with the GeneCards
and MalaCards integrated database suite, to aid in the
development of BioTime's proprietary PureStem human
progenitor cell lines into products for the treatment of human diseases,
especially degenerative diseases that might be treatable with cell
replacement therapies. The LifeMap Discovery platform will
be used to select the progenitor cell lines that are most likely to
facilitate the development of cell-based regenerative medicine therapies
for a wide range of diseases.
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
develops and markets research products in the fields of stem cells and
regenerative medicine, including a wide array of proprietary PureStem
cell lines, HyStem hydrogels, culture media, and
differentiation kits. BioTime is developing Renevia (formerly
known as HyStem -Rx), a biocompatible,
implantable hyaluronan and collagen-based matrix for cell delivery in
human clinical applications. BioTime's therapeutic product development
strategy is pursued through subsidiaries that focus on specific organ
systems and related diseases for which there is a high unmet medical
need. BioTime's majority owned subsidiary Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd.
is developing therapeutic products derived from stem cells for the
treatment of retinal and neural degenerative diseases. BioTime's
subsidiary OrthoCyte Corporation is developing therapeutic applications
of stem cells to treat orthopedic diseases and injuries. Another
subsidiary, OncoCyte Corporation, focuses on the diagnostic and
therapeutic applications of stem cell technology in cancer, including
the diagnostic product PanC-Dx currently being developed for the
detection of cancer in blood samples. ReCyte Therapeutics, Inc. is
developing applications of BioTime's proprietary induced pluripotent
stem cell technology to reverse the developmental aging of human cells
to treat cardiovascular and blood cell diseases. BioTime's subsidiary
LifeMap Sciences, Inc. markets GeneCards , the
leading human gene database, and is developing an integrated database
suite to complement GeneCards that will also
include the LifeMap database of embryonic development, stem cell
research and regenerative medicine, and MalaCards, the human
disease database. LifeMap will also market BioTime research products.
BioTime's lead product, Hextend , is a blood
plasma volume expander manufactured and distributed in the U.S. by
Hospira, Inc. and in South Korea by CJ CheilJedang Corporation under
exclusive licensing agreements. Additional information about BioTime can