CORRECTING and REPLACING San Diego Company Formed around Breakthrough in Embryonic...

CORRECTING and REPLACING San Diego Company Formed around Breakthrough in Embryonic Stem Cell Research

Embryonic Stem Cells Generated Without Use Of Embryos Or
Retroviral Vectors To Add Exogenous DNA To Host Cells
SAN DIEGO--(Business Wire)--Please replace the release with the following corrected version
due to multiple revisions.

The corrected release reads:

SAN DIEGO COMPANY FORMED AROUND BREAKTHROUGH IN EMBRYONIC STEM
CELL RESEARCH

Embryonic Stem Cells Generated Without Use Of Embryos Or
Retroviral Vectors To Add Exogenous DNA To Host Cells

Cascade LifeSciences Incorporated today announced that its
collaborator, Dr. Shoukhrat Mitalipov, Ph.D., and Oregon Health &
Science University (OHSU) have made a major breakthrough in the
developing of primate embryonic stem cell lines. The breakthrough may
advance health care research and lead to the generation of
transplantable stem cell products to combat numerous human diseases.
As published in the journal Nature on November 22, 2007, Dr. Mitalipov
and his team at OHSU's Oregon National Primate Research Center are the
first to successfully create monkey embryonic stem cells using a
technique known as somatic cell nuclear transfer (SCNT). For more
detail see:
here
here

Cascade LifeSciences is the exclusive worldwide licensee of Dr.
Mitalipov's technology related to SCNT reprogramming as well as a
second method of generating embryonic stem cells using an approach
known as parthenogenesis. Notably, both approaches are capable of
generating pluripotent embryonic stem cells without the use or need
for fertilized embryos as a starting material. Moreover, both of Dr.
Mitalipov's approaches have the additional attribute of producing
embryonic stem cells genetically matched to the patient, thus,
avoiding immune rejection issues in the human therapeutic setting. Dr.
Mitalipov and Cascade LifeSciences are collaborating on further
refinement and development of this technology.

Dr. Donald Wolf, Ph.D. a retired OHSU primate center scientist who
helped author the Nature paper, and currently chairman of the
Scientific Advisory Board of Cascade LifeSciences, commented "Dr.
Mitalipov's new technology provides a solid basis for the development
of human SCNT-ESC lines that may ultimately save thousands of human
lives."

Howard Birndorf, President and Founder of Cascade LifeSciences,
commented, "We are pleased to be associated with Dr. Mitalipov, his
team at OHSU and, in particular, this breakthrough in primate stem
cell creation. We are working with Dr. Mitalipov to refine his primate
work, begin the next phase in producing human embryonic stem cells via
SCNT, and expand our proprietary position in this powerful area of
regenerative medicine."

"OHSU is proud of Dr. Mitalipov's success. More importantly we are
encouraged by the hope it holds for patients suffering from several
diseases that may be treated through stem cell therapies," said
Arundeep S. Pradhan, Director of OHSU's Office of Technology &
Research Collaboration. "We are pleased to partner with Cascade
LifeSciences in efforts to further advance these findings and further
move these promising developments from lab bench to bedside."

Ken Woolcott, Chief Business Officer of Cascade LifeSciences,
commented, "Dr. Mitalipov's work represents a scientific foundation
from which we will pursue numerous commercial opportunities including
research reagents/kits, drug discovery models/systems and, ultimately,
human cell-based therapeutic products. While stem cell research is
moving forward rapidly, we believe that the OHSU advances offer key
long-term technical/commercial differentiators. Not only do we no
longer need fertilized embryos as a starting material, the technology
appears to address the issue of transplant rejection in the
therapeutic setting and, moreover, does not require the use of
retroviral transfection of additional DNA, such as transgenes,
oncogenes, etc., to create pluripotent stem cells."

BACKGROUND

A major challenge in cell-based regenerative therapy is a limited
supply of immunologically matched cells for transplantation. Embryonic
stem cells (ESCs) represent a potential source of transplantable cells
and it is possible to generate patient-specific ESCs that should be
immunologically compatible using an approach called Somatic Cell
Nuclear Transfer (SCNT). In this technique nuclear material from the
patient's somatic cell is transferred into an enucleated donor oocyte.
The oocyte is chemically activated and development begins. While this
technology has been established in other mammals, Dr. Mitalipov and
his scientific team are the first to successfully perform SCNT in a
primate. This accomplishment is based on a thorough investigation of
the molecular mechanisms regulating nuclear remodeling following SCNT
in primates. By isolation and culture of the Inner Cell Mass (ICM)
from blastocysts, a panel of SCNT-ESC lines were established that are
pluripotent and can be differentiated into tissue-specific multipotent
stem cells or potentially into any of the 206 mature cell types in the
body. Dr. Mitalipov's work is a major breakthrough in stem cell
science.

About Cascade LifeSciences Incorporated

Cascade LifeSciences is a private San Diego-based company with a
platform of stem cell related technologies that are being advanced to
serve the research community and the commercial development of stem
cell-based therapeutics. The founding team of Howard Birndorf, William
Respess and Ken Woolcott have been involved in numerous lifescience
startups in the San Diego area including Hybritech, IDEC, Gen-Probe,
Ligand Pharmaceuticals and Nanogen, Inc.

Cascade LifeSciences Inc.
Kenneth J. Woolcott
Chief Business Officer
858-945-4667
kjwoolcott@aol.com

Copyright Business Wire 2007