Ocata Therapeutics Inc fka OCAT

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Chairmans Blog June 20, 2011

Time Magazine Features ACT’s Clinical Trials For Macular Degeneration

Greetings,

As you are no doubt aware, last Thursday, June 16th, we announced that the first patients have been enrolled at the Jules Stein Eye Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) for our two upcoming Phase 1/2 clinical trials using using retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells derived from human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) for Stargardt’s Macular Dystrophy (SMD) and Dry Age-Related Macular Degeneration (Dry
AMD).

We are very pleased about achieving this milestone and see it not only as an important step forward for ACT, but for the overall field of regenerative medicine.

The announcement was greeted with enthusiastic coverage from the news media. This included coverage from newswire services such as Reuters and Europe’s AFP, as well as major newspapers such as the Washington Post’s “Checkup” blog, the Guardian (UK), and elsewhere.

The feature article in the TIME magazine’s print and online edition is particularly gratifying. The story, by senior reporter Alice Park, appears in the current issue, dated June 27, now available on newsstands nationwide.

Among other aspects of the two clinical trials, the TIME story discusses the involvement of Steven Schwartz, M.D., principal investigator of the trials at UCLA, Ahmanson Professor of Ophthalmology at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, and retina division chief at the Jules Stein Eye Institute.

The story also quotes Robert Lanza, M.D., our chief scientific officer, as saying, “We are finally ready to break ground on this field with the first trials. It’s taken a decade of extensive research to get to this point.”

Please find the article on TIME’s website via the following link:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,2078130,00.html

Thank you.

Gary Rabin
Interim Chairman and CEO
Advanced Cell Technology, Inc.
http://www.thechairmansblog.com/gary-rabin/