Singapore, Jan 04, 2012: US-based biotechnology company BioTime has elected to market progenitors of muscle stem cells bearing hereditary diseases. BioTime will produce the products from five human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines from Reproductive Genetics Institute (RGI) of Chicago, Illinois. The muscle cell lines will display the genes for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, Emery-Dreifuss muscular dystrophy, spinal muscular atrophy Type I, facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy 1A, and Becker muscular dystrophy. The cell lines will be marketed researchers seeking new treatment modalities for these diseases.

"In the first quarter of this year, we will offer medical researchers normal muscle progenitor cell lines that we have already produced from BioTime's existing hES cell lines, and later in 2012 we plan to add to our product line the novel muscle progenitor cells produced from RGI cell lines bearing the five genetic muscle diseases," said Michael West, PhD, BioTime's CEO. "BioTime's business strategy includes generating near-term revenues in the emerging field of regenerative medicine by bringing some of the most advanced stem cell technologies to the market as research products."

Human embryonic stem (hES) cell lines are cells typically derived from excess preimplantation embryos, produced in the course of in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, that were otherwise destined to be discarded. Because stem cells are derived at very early stages of development, they are undifferentiated and capable of becoming all the cell types of the human body. hES cells, therefore, have a potential role in the development of novel cell-based therapies for a host of degenerative diseases such as the hereditary diseases borne by the hES stem cell lines we will acquire from RGI. As hES cells open the door to the discovery of new classes of pharmaceuticals, they are expected to increase our understanding of human development.