LifeMap Sciences, a Subsidiary of BioTime, Inc., Launches LifeMap Discovery™: A Database of Human Cellular Life for …

ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

LifeMap Sciences, Inc., a subsidiary of BioTime, Inc. (NYSE MKT: BTX), announced today the launch of LifeMap Discovery (discovery.lifemapsc.com), a state-of-the-art roadmap of embryonic development and stem cell biology. The platform integrates embryonic development and stem cell biology with molecular, cellular, anatomical, and disease-related information, and provides data-mining capabilities and bioinformatics applications. LifeMap Discovery is a unique and powerful tool for research and discovery in multiple disciplines, including stem cell biology, developmental biology, disease mechanisms and etiology, and drug and therapeutic discovery and development. This new and innovative database is a central element in LifeMaps discovery platform for biomedical and stem cell research, which also includes GeneCards, the leading human gene database, and MalaCards, the human disease database.

The launch of LifeMap Discovery represents a key milestone for LifeMap Sciences. The platform is a central element in the generation of near-term revenues through paid subscriptions, and is expected to drive traffic to the recently launched LifeMap BioReagents marketing portal, as well as aid in the companys therapeutic discovery activities.

Near-term subscription revenues from pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies

Like GeneCards and MalaCards, LifeMap Sciences is making certain aspects of LifeMap Discovery free for use to stem cell researchers at academic non-profit organizations. Other institutions, including pharmaceuticals and biotechnology companies, are offered access through paid subscriptions to the platform.

Near-term revenues via research reagent sales through the LifeMap BioReagents portal

The LifeMap integrated database suite is expected to drive traffic to LifeMap Sciences LifeMap BioReagents portal, providing hundreds of thousands of biomedical researchers who access these databases a means of identifying research reagents that can enhance their research and discovery efforts. These databases currently feature targeted links to the various BioTime PureStem human progenitor cell lines, PureStem packages, and clinical- and research-grade human embryonic stem cell lines. Starting in early 2013, additional links will be provided to other research products that are complementary to the BioTime stem cell products, which will be available from LifeMap BioReagents. With access to the databases, researchers can become familiar with, and purchase, products that relate directly to the types of genes, cells, or diseases that they are investigating.

Therapeutic discovery efforts

In addition to the generation of near-term revenues from subscriptions and sales of research products, LifeMap Sciences scientific team is utilizing LifeMap Discovery to research and identify PureStem human progenitor cell lines (also known as ACTCellerate lines) likely to be useful in the research and development of cell-based regenerative medicine therapies for a wide range of diseases. Once identified, selected cell lines will be marketed by LifeMap Sciences for research purposes via the recently launched LifeMap BioReagents portal, and these unique lines may eventually be advanced to therapeutic development by BioTime and/or LifeMap Sciences.

The launch of the LifeMap Discovery database is a significant milestone in the emerging field of regenerative medicine and a tribute to the tireless efforts of the scientific and development teams at LifeMap Sciences, said Michael D. West, PhD, President and Chief Executive Officer of BioTime. The power of embryonic stem cells to transform into all of the cell types in the human body is at once both their greatest opportunity and challenge. Many of the degenerative diseases afflicting our aging population are caused by a lack of functional cells capable of regenerating particular tissues in the body. Until recently, the field has suffered from the lack of a roadmap directing scientists through the many hundreds of branch points in the stems of the tree of human cellular life. Together with GeneCards and MalaCards, LifeMap Discovery provides the beginning of an online directory that may help us see the day when lifesaving stem cell-based therapies reach the people so desperately in need of them.

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LifeMap Sciences, a Subsidiary of BioTime, Inc., Launches LifeMap Discovery™: A Database of Human Cellular Life for ...