ALAMEDA, Calif. — LifeMap Sciences, Inc., a subsidiary of BioTime, Inc. (NYSE MKT: BTX), announced today that the LifeMap Discovery™ product has been documented in a published paper authored by LifeMap Sciences’ research and development team. LifeMap Discovery™ (available as of November 2012 via https://discovery.lifemapsc.com/) is the first “roadmap” directing scientists through the many hundreds of branch points in the stems of the tree of human cellular life. It also merges experimental knowledge on stem cell biology and regenerative medicine, striving to aid researchers in the quest to produce functional cells capable of regenerating particular tissues in the body, for the treatment of a variety of degenerative diseases.

LifeMap Discovery™ is a key component of LifeMap’s therapeutic discovery collaboration with BioTime and is utilized in conjunction with LifeMap’s proprietary bioinformatics tools to select the PureStem™ cells that are most likely to be useful in developing cell-based regenerative medicine therapies for a wide range of diseases.

The publication titled “LifeMap Discovery™: The embryonic development, stem cells, and regenerative medicine research portal” in the open access peer-reviewed journal PLOS ONE can be viewed via the link https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0066629. The publication describes the scientific and technological foundations of LifeMap Discovery™, the first road map of embryonic development on a cellular level. Key features that are described in the publication include the following:

Embryonic development tree

LifeMap Discovery™ displays more than 1,400 cell types and anatomical structures of the developing embryo and the cellular differentiation that occurs during mammalian embryonic development, branching from the zygote to the progenitor cells and terminating at the mature cells. It covers developmental paths of various types of cells, including blood, endothelium, motor neurons, bone, cartilage and many more.

Stem cell differentiation protocols

LifeMap Discovery™ provides more than 100 protocols used to induce differentiation of various embryonic and progenitor cells and of induced pluripotent stem cells into various cell types (for example, a protocol for derivation of motor neuron-like cells). Each protocol is displayed in a “card” that contains an informative and interactive viewer, sketching the protocol in a stepwise fashion.

Regenerative medicine

LifeMap Discovery™ provides a wealth of information on diseases which represent potential targets for cell-based therapeutic approaches and medically relevant information relating to regenerative medicine. It also provides cell-based therapy approaches that apply cultured stem cells towards treatment of degenerative diseases, via replacement of damaged cells or tissues, and/or stimulation of the body’s natural repair mechanisms.

Gene expression and signaling

Cells and anatomical compartments of the developing embryo are characterized by specific gene expression profiles and selective markers, as well as by signaling molecules that participate in pathways which guide embryonic development. LifeMap Discovery™provides this molecular information for various cell types as well as for cultured stem, progenitor and primary cells. It also provides a centralized means of identifying cell types throughout in vivo embryonic development or in vitro stem cell differentiation procedures, based on specific gene expression profiles.

“The sophisticated detail in the LifeMap Discovery™ database is a reflection of a movement underway in regenerative medicine toward a higher definition of cell types in research and therapy,” said Dr. Michael West, CEO of BioTime. “We believe the database will not only bring more traffic to the LifeMap database suite, but will also be the backbone for moving this increasingly complex field toward clinical application.”

“The publication describing LifeMap Discovery™ in a leading journal in its field is a validation of the scientific merits of this leading edge state-of-the-art product,” stated David Warshawsky, Ph.D., President and CEO of LifeMap Sciences. “Our team is dedicated to continuing to enhance LifeMap Discovery™ and we are delighted to see the rapid growth of use by the global research community, already several tens of thousands of users. We are eager to see the impact that this remarkable resource will have in the transformative field of regenerative medicine.”