LifeMap Sciences, A Subsidiary Of BioTime, And Lab7 Systems Announce Partnership And Launch Of Integrated NGS Analysis Solution

• LifeMap’s VarElect, The NGS Phenotyper, is now integrated into Lab7 ESP DNA sequence analysis, outputs and reports
• Lab7 ESP users can leverage VarElect’s integrated features to rapidly identify causal mutations and examine related biological evidence

ALAMEDA, Calif. & AUSTIN, Texas--(BUSINESS WIRE)--LifeMap Sciences, Inc. (“LifeMap”), a subsidiary of BioTime, Inc., and Lab7 Systems, Inc., announced today a partnership and launch of an integrated solution in the next-generation genomic sequencing (NGS) field, a multi-billion dollar, rapidly growing global market. LifeMap’s VarElect, The NGS Phenotyper, is now integrated into the Lab7 Enterprise Science Platform’s (ESP™) DNA sequence analysis, outputs and reports, enabling Lab7 ESP users to purchase access for enhanced variant gene prioritization and review of biological evidence linking variant genes to diseases and phenotypes of interest. Lab7 ESP, a solution for sample, data, and analysis management for NGS labs, supports life-science analytics at hospitals and medical research centers and organizations.

“The combination of VarElect with the end-to-end NGS sample-to-answer software platform offered by Lab7 is a powerful tool enabling basic and clinical research for improved diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of devastating conditions.”

LifeMap Sciences’ VarElect is a powerful, easy-to-use solution for prioritizing gene variants resulting from NGS experiments that rapidly prioritizes gene variants according to their potential association to a disease or phenotype of interest, and aids in identifying the roles of genes and their variants in biological processes, health, and disease. VarElect is presently used in more than 100 hospitals, research institutes, universities, core facilities biopharma and diagnostic companies worldwide. VarElect leverages LifeMap Sciences’ GeneCards Suite; an integrated biomedical knowledgebase of human genes, variants, proteins, cells, biological pathways, diseases, and the relationships between them based on information from over 120 sources.

Lab7 Systems’ ESP™ is a complete sample-to-answer software platform for data-intensive laboratory operations, including NGS. By combining Laboratory Information Management System (LIMS) features with an advanced analysis pipeline manager and reporting framework, the ESP enables users to manage their entire sequencing workflow. The heart of the ESP is a fully customizable workflow engine that organizes the lab around different sequencing workflows. ESP Workflows encompass not only wet lab operations but also support full integration of analysis and reporting, drastically reducing the amount of IT “machinery” required to manage, process, and analyze samples.

“Lab7 ESP is an extensible lab data management platform that helps organizations and individual researchers track samples, process data, produce reports, and manage workflows and analysis pipelines – increasing sample throughput and freeing space for new opportunity in the lab,” said Christopher Mueller, Ph.D., President and Chief Technology Officer of Lab7 Systems. “Our partnership with LifeMap furthers the latter, enabling our ESP users to enhance their clinical decisions by allowing them to seamlessly leverage the power of the GeneCards Suite.”

“Our GeneCards Suite knowledgebase and premium tools are powerful resources used by thousands of institutions worldwide. Leveraging the wealth of information we have in our knowledgebase, we expect to be a leading source of solutions for gene variant analysis and interpretation in the growing NGS analysis market,” said David Warshawsky, Ph.D., President and Chief Executive Officer of LifeMap. “The combination of VarElect with the end-to-end NGS sample-to-answer software platform offered by Lab7 is a powerful tool enabling basic and clinical research for improved diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of devastating conditions.”

About LifeMap Sciences, Inc.

LifeMap Sciences (“LifeMap”) is a life sciences technology company that offers integrated, streamlined solutions that empower life scientists worldwide to conduct cutting-edge basic, clinical and applied biomedical research. LifeMap’s products are used in more than 3,000 institutions including academia, research hospitals, patent offices, and leading biopharma and diagnostic companies. Operations worldwide are carried out from our offices in California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Tel Aviv and Hong Kong. LifeMap is a subsidiary of BioTime, Inc.

The company’s primary product offering, the GeneCards Suite, is comprised of an integrated biomedical knowledgebase and premium tools that enable researchers to effectively navigate the universe of human genes, proteins, cells, biological pathways, diseases, and the relationships between them. The knowledgebase includes three key databases that integrate information from over 120 sources: GeneCards®, the leading human gene database, MalaCards, the human disease database, and LifeMap Discovery®, the cells and tissues database. The GeneCards Suite premium tools are a set of biomedical data analysis applications that leverage the GeneCards Suite knowledgebase for gene variant prioritization and RNAseq and microarray gene set analysis to deliver enhanced results, including from the unprecedented quantities of data derived from next generation sequencing (“NGS”). The premium tools include VarElect, the NGS phenotyper, GeneAnalytics™, a novel gene set analysis tool, and GeneALaCart, the GeneCards batch querying application. LifeMap holds the exclusive worldwide license to market GeneCards, MalaCards, VarElect and GeneAnalytics from Yeda Research and Development Company Ltd., the commercial arm of the Weizmann Institute of Science.

LifeMap Sciences also intends to extend its offerings to the field of mobile health via its subsidiary, LifeMap Solutions, Inc.

About Lab7 Systems, Inc.

Lab7 Systems is a software developer that has a vision to reduce the level of hands-on data management by bioinformaticians, scientists, and IT teams who are struggling with the massive amounts of next generation sequencing data that are being generated. Lab7 understands there is a critical need for a platform that integrates the disparate and often disjointed scientific software toolkit that is being used, thereby freeing up the valuable human resources who are currently tasked with doing this.

Lab7’s flagship product, the Enterprise Science Platform (ESP™), takes labs from isolated practices to an integrated process, unifying lab informatics and prioritizing data provenance for the entire organization. The transparent platform provides users access to all information, reducing data and process redundancies and ambiguities. With Lab7 ESP, we didn’t reinvent lab management or scientific analysis – we just developed a tool to make them easier and more efficient.

For more information, visit www.lab7.io.

About the Weizmann Institute of Science and GeneCards

The Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel, is one of the world’s top-ranking multidisciplinary research institutions. Noted for its wide-ranging exploration of the natural and exact sciences, the Institute is home to scientists, postdoctoral fellows, Ph.D. and M.Sc. students, and scientific, technical and administrative staff. In addition, visiting scientists and their families – over 500 from 35 countries are regularly hosted at the Institute. The Institute was founded in 1934 following a donation from Israel and Rebecca Sieff to Dr. Chaim Weizmann, a noted biochemist and biotechnologist, who envisioned the establishment of a world-class scientific research center in Israel, and later also became the first President of the State of Israel. Weizmann Institute’s Feinberg Graduate School, established in 1958, has 1200 M.Sc. and Ph.D. students enrolled in studies covering the Institute’s five faculties: Biochemistry, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, and Mathematics and Computer Science. The Institute’s technology transfer arm, Yeda Research and Development Co. Ltd. was the first company of its kind in Israel, and is currently one of the most successful worldwide. Institute research efforts include the search for new ways of fighting disease and hunger, examining leading questions in mathematics and computer science, probing the physics of matter and the universe, creating novel materials and developing new strategies for protecting the environment. Particular excellence in bioinformatics and systems biology is manifested, among others, in the GeneCards project, initiated in 1996, under the leadership of Prof. Doron Lancet of the Dept. of Molecular Genetics, Head of the Crown Human Genome Center. A team of 10 led by Marilyn Safran continuously innovates and keeps GeneCards as a world-top human gene compendium, automatically mining and integrating 100 worldwide web resources.

About BioTime, Inc.

BioTime, Inc., a pioneer in regenerative medicine, is a clinical-stage biotechnology company. BioTime and its subsidiaries are leveraging their industry-leading experience in pluripotent stem cell technology and a broad intellectual property portfolio to facilitate the development and use of cell-based therapies and gene marker-based molecular diagnostics for major diseases and degenerative conditions for which there presently are no cures. The lead clinical programs of BioTime and its subsidiaries include OpRegen^®, currently in a Phase I/IIa trial for the treatment of the dry form of age-related macular degeneration; AST-OPC1, currently in a Phase I/IIa trial for spinal cord injuries; Renevia™, currently in a pivotal trial in Europe as an injectable matrix for the engraftment of transplanted cells to treat HIV-related lipoatrophy; and cancer diagnostics, nearing the completion of initial clinical studies for the detection of lung, bladder, and breast cancers. AST-VAC2, a cancer vaccine, is in the pre-clinical trial stage.

BioTime’s subsidiaries include the publicly traded Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. , developing pluripotent stem cell-based therapies in neurology and oncology, including AST-OPC1 and AST-VAC2; Cell Cure Neurosciences Ltd., developing stem cell-based therapies for retinal and neurological disorders, including OpRegen^®; OncoCyte Corporation, developing cancer diagnostics; LifeMap Sciences, Inc., developing and marketing an integrated on-line database resource for biomedical and stem cell research; LifeMap Solutions, Inc., a subsidiary of LifeMap Sciences, developing mobile health (mHealth) products; ES Cell International Pte Ltd, which has developed cGMP-compliant human embryonic stem cell lines that are being marketed by BioTime for research purposes under the ESI BIO branding program; OrthoCyte Corporation, developing therapies to treat orthopedic disorders, diseases, and injuries; and ReCyte Therapeutics, Inc., developing therapies to treat a variety of cardiovascular and related ischemic disorders.

For more information, please visit www.biotimeinc.com or connect with the company on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, and Google+.

Forward-Looking Statements

Statements pertaining to future financial and/or operating results, future growth in research, technology, clinical development, and potential opportunities for BioTime and its subsidiaries, along with other statements about the future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans, or prospects expressed by management constitute forward-looking statements. Any statements that are not historical fact (including, but not limited to statements that contain words such as “will,” “believes,” “plans,” “anticipates,” “expects,” “estimates”) should also be considered to be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve risks and uncertainties, including, without limitation, risks inherent in the development and/or commercialization of potential products, uncertainty in the results of clinical trials or regulatory approvals, need and ability to obtain future capital, and maintenance of intellectual property rights. Actual results may differ materially from the results anticipated in these forward-looking statements and as such should be evaluated together with the many uncertainties that affect the business of BioTime and its subsidiaries, particularly those mentioned in the cautionary statements found in BioTime’s Securities and Exchange Commission filings. BioTime disclaims any intent or obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

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