ALAMEDA, Calif. & JERUSALEM--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- BioTime, Inc. (NYSE MKT: BTX) and its subsidiary Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd. (Cell Cure) today announced that they have entered into a share purchase agreement through which BioTime agreed to purchase 87,456 Cell Cure ordinary shares in exchange for 906,735 BioTime common shares. As a result of the share purchase, BioTime will own, directly and through its wholly owned subsidiary ES Cell International Pte. Ltd., approximately 62.6% of the outstanding ordinary shares of Cell Cure. The number of BioTime common shares that will be issued to acquire the Cell Cure shares was based upon an average market price of $3.86 per BioTime common share determined on the basis of the ten actual trading days prior to November 1, 2012. Under the Share Purchase Agreement, BioTime may be required to issue additional common shares to Cell Cure, or Cell Cure may be required to issue additional Cell Cure ordinary shares to BioTime, depending upon whether the market value of BioTime common shares increases or decreases by more than 15%, based upon the average closing price for the ten trading days commencing on May 1, 2013. If the market value of BioTime common shares declines by more … Continue reading →

By E.J. Mundell HealthDay Reporter TUESDAY, Nov. 6 (HealthDay News) -- Updated two-year results from a small trial using cardiac stem cells to repair damaged hearts suggest the treatment's healing effect persists. Patients with heart failure caused by prior heart attacks who got the treatment continue to see reductions in cardiac scar tissue, improvements in the heart's pumping ability and even a boost in their quality of life, researchers said. These improvements seem to be continuing as time goes on, suggesting that stem cell therapy's healing power hasn't diminished. "Now we need to perform larger and randomized, blinded studies ... to confirm this data," said study lead author Dr. Roberto Bolli, director of the Institute of Molecular Cardiology at the University of Louisville. His team presented its results Tuesday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting, in Los Angeles. According to the AHA, more than 6 million Americans suffer from heart failure, a gradual weakening of the heart often caused by damage from a prior heart attack. Despite its prevalence and lethality, virtually no advance has been made over the past few decades in doctors' ability to treat or reverse heart failure. That's why the advent of stem cell therapy … Continue reading →

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA--(Marketwire - Nov 7, 2012) - VistaGen Therapeutics, Inc. ( OTCBB : VSTA ) ( OTCQB : VSTA ), a biotechnology company applying stem cell technology for drug rescue, predictive toxicology and drug metabolism screening, and Duke University, one of the country's premier academic research institutions, announced that results of their collaboration were presented yesterday at the American Heart Association 2012 Scientific Sessions in Los Angeles. The presentation, entitled "Human embryonic stem cell-derived cardiac tissue patch with advanced structure and function," highlighted the important synergistic interactions of VistaGen's stem cell-derived human cardiomyocytes (heart cells) and Duke's tissue engineering and analytical technologies.The research, which expands the scope of VistaGen's drug rescue capabilities focused on heart toxicology, was led at Duke by Dr. Nenad Bursac, Associate Professor in the Departments of Biomedical Engineering and Cardiology, and at VistaGen by Dr. Ralph Snodgrass, President and Chief Scientific Officer. The high-quality and purity of VistaGen's cardiomyocytes, together with Dr. Bursac's innovative tissue engineering technologies, enabled the development of novel methods of engineering three-dimensional (3D) cardiac tissues and unique in vitro systems for studying the maturation and electromechanical function of human cardiac muscle. These technologies provide novel in vitro tools for evaluating … Continue reading →

TORONTO, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - Nov. 7, 2012) - Stem Cell Therapeutics Corp. (TSX VENTURE:SSS), a life sciences company developing stem cell-related technologies, today announced the signing of an agreement with University Health Network ("UHN"), through its commercialization agent MaRS Innovation ("MI"), both of Toronto. The agreement provides Stem Cell Therapeutics ("SCT") with an option to an exclusive world-wide license to an innovative cancer stem cell program. Based on Dr. Aaron Schimmer's award-winning research, the technology has provided compelling evidence that tigecycline, an FDA-approved antibiotic, is able to selectively target leukemia cells and leukemic stem cells by shutting down their energy supply through the inhibition of mitochondrial protein synthesis. Dr. Schimmer, Associate Professor in the University of Toronto's Department of Medical Biophysics and a clinician-scientist in the Princess Margaret Cancer Centre/Ontario Cancer Institute at University Health Network, published his findings in 2011 in the journal Cancer Cell. Based on this discovery, Dr. Schimmer received the 2012 Till & McCulloch Award presented each year by the Stem Cell Network to recognize the year's most influential peer-reviewed article by a researcher in Canada. "In recent years Dr. Schimmer has had a widely-recognized rise to become one of Canada's premier clinician-scientists," commented David Allan, Executive … Continue reading →