BioLife Solutions Announces Strategic Partnership with HemaCare

BOTHELL, Wash., June 25, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- BioLife Solutions, Inc. (OTCQB: BLFS), a leading developer, manufacturer and marketer of proprietary clinical grade hypothermic storage and cryopreservation freeze media for cells and tissues, and contract aseptic media manufacturer, and HemaCare Corporation, (OTCPK:HEMA), a leading supplier of blood derived cells and components for research and clinical applications, today announced a strategic relationship wherein HemaCare will market BioLife's HypoThermosol^® and CryoStor^® biopreservation media products and HemaCare's blood derived cells to the research and clinical communities.

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Pete van der Wal, President and CEO of HemaCare, remarked on the extended shelf life and viability of HemaCare's Bioresearch products, specifically, peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMNC's), through the use of BioLife's HypoThermosol storage and shipping medium, "The current gold standard of shipping frozen PBMNC's to researchers requires back-end thawing and culturing before the cells are ready for use.  HypoThermosol has demonstrated remarkable ability to extend the shelf life of this valuable cell type out to 4 days, eliminating the cryopreservation process and its related yield loss, and enabling a worldwide delivery footprint for fresh apheresis-derived cells."

Information on the use of HypoThermosol with HemaCare's apheresis derived cells can be found here: HemaCare data.

Mike Rice, BioLife Solutions President and CEO, commented on the announcement by stating, "HemaCare offers best-in-class bioresearch products derived from the most robust and highest quality apheresis collections.  We're glad to partner with them to enable a new product option for their customers.  We look forward to additional collaborative research that we believe will generate even more data supporting the value proposition of our proprietary biopreservation media products."

More information can be found here: http://www.hemacare.com/biopreservation_media.asp

About HemaCare

HemaCare Corporation is a blood services company serving healthcare providers and the scientific community for over 35 years. HemaCare and its subsidiary, Coral Blood Services, perform therapeutic apheresis services, provide human-derived biological products, and support the use of cellular therapies with apheresis collections. The Company was founded in 1978 and is based in Van Nuys, California. The Company assists the scientific community by providing researchers with the human primary cells, blood components, and tissue they need to advance research.  All cellular products and blood components are collected from IRB consented normal donors and patients derived from the following tissues including peripheral blood, mobilized, peripheral blood, bone marrow, and umbilical cord blood.  For more information please visit www.hemacare.com.

About BioLife Solutions

BioLife Solutions develops, manufactures and markets hypothermic storage and cryopreservation solutions for cells, tissues, and organs.  The Company's proprietary HypoThermosol^® and CryoStor^® platform of solutions are highly valued in the biobanking, drug discovery, and regenerative medicine markets. BioLife's products are serum-free and protein-free, fully defined, and are formulated to reduce preservation-induced cell damage and death.  BioLife's enabling technology provides academic and clinical researchers significant improvement in shelf life and post-preservation viability and function of cells, tissues, and organs.  For more information please visit www.biolifesolutions.com, and follow BioLife on Twitter.

This news release contains forward-looking statements as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995.  These forward-looking statements include any statements that relate to the intent, belief, plans or expectations of the Company or its management, or that are not a statement of historical fact.  Any forward-looking statements in this news release are based on current expectations and beliefs and are subject to numerous risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially. Some of the specific factors that could cause BioLife Solutions' actual results to differ materially are discussed in the Company's recent filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.  BioLife Solutions disclaims any obligation to update any forward-looking statements as a result of developments occurring after the date of this press release. 

SOURCE BioLife Solutions, Inc.