ALAMEDA, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--BioTime, Inc. (NYSE MKT: BTX) and its subsidiary Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. today announced that Jane S. Lebkowski, PhD, President, Research & Development of Asterias, will present at the 17th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy taking place May 20-24, 2014 in Washington, DC.

Dr. Lebkowskis presentation will take place in the session titled The Next Generation in Stem Cell Therapies on Thursday May 22, 2014 at 10:15 AM EDT at the Marriot Wardman Park, Washington, DC. Dr. Lebkowskis presentation is titled Phase I Clinical Trial of Human Embryonic Stem Cell-Derived Oligodendrocyte Progenitors in Patients with Neurologically Complete Thoracic Spinal Cord Injury: Results and Next Steps. In her presentation, Dr. Lebkowski will disclose for the first time certain Phase I clinical trial results of OPC1. The presentation will be made available on BioTimes and Asterias websites at http://www.biotimeinc.com and http://www.biotimeinc.com/asterias-biotherapeutics/.

About Asterias

Asterias is a biotechnology company focused on the emerging field of regenerative medicine. Our core technologies center on stem cells capable of becoming all of the cell types in the human body, a property called pluripotency. We plan to develop therapies based on pluripotent stem cells to treat diseases or injuries in a variety of medical fields, with an initial focus on the therapeutic applications of oligodendrocyte progenitor cells (OPC1) and antigen-presenting dendritic cells (VAC1 and VAC2) for the fields of neurology and oncology respectively. OPC1 was tested for treatment of spinal cord injury in the worlds first Phase 1 clinical trial using human embryonic stem cell-derived cells. We plan to reinitiate clinical testing of OPC1 in spinal cord injury this year, and are also evaluating its function in nonclinical models of multiple sclerosis and stroke. VAC1 and VAC2 are dendritic cell-based vaccines designed to immunize cancer patients against the telomerase, a protein abnormally expressed in over 95% of human cancer types. VAC2 differs from VAC1 in that the dendritic cells presenting telomerase to the immune system are produced from human embryonic stem cells instead of being derived from human blood.

In October of 2013, Asterias acquired the cell therapy assets of Geron Corporation. These assets included INDs for the clinical stage OPC1 and VAC1 programs, banks of cGMP-manufactured OPC1 drug product, cGMP master and working cell banks of human embryonic stem cells, over 400 patents and patent applications filed worldwide, research cell banks, customized reagents and equipment, and various assets relating to preclinical programs in cardiology, orthopedics, and diabetes.

Asterias is a member of the BioTime family of companies.

About BioTime

BioTime is a biotechnology company engaged in research and product development in the field of regenerative medicine. Regenerative medicine refers to therapies based on stem cell technology that are designed to rebuild cell and tissue function lost due to degenerative disease or injury. BioTimes focus is on pluripotent stem cell technology based on human embryonic stem (hES) cells and induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. hES and iPS cells provide a means of manufacturing every cell type in the human body and therefore show considerable promise for the development of a number of new therapeutic products. BioTimes therapeutic and research products include a wide array of proprietary PureStem progenitors, HyStem hydrogels, culture media, and differentiation kits. BioTime is developing Renevia (a HyStem product) as a biocompatible, implantable hyaluronan and collagen-based matrix for cell delivery in human clinical applications. In addition, BioTime has developed Hextend, a blood plasma volume expander for use in surgery, emergency trauma treatment and other applications. Hextend is manufactured and distributed in the U.S. by Hospira, Inc. and in South Korea by CJ HealthCare Corporation under exclusive licensing agreements.

BioTime is also developing stem cell and other products for research, therapeutic, and diagnostic use through its subsidiaries:

Additional information about BioTime can be found on the web at http://www.biotimeinc.com.

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Asterias Biotherapeutics, Inc. to Present Phase I Clinical Data at the 17th Annual Meeting of the American Society of ...