ST. LOUIS, Feb. 24, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Sigma Life Science,
the innovative biological products and services research business
of Sigma-Aldrich® (Nasdaq: SIAL), today announced the release of
its pre-designed CompoZr Knockout Zinc Finger Nucleases (ZFNs)
technology to knockout any gene in the human genome. The new
offer, attractively priced to fit within the budget of a typical
laboratory, can generate permanent and heritable gene knockouts in
human cell lines within weeks. For more detailed information,
visit www.wherebiobegins.com/knockout.
Currently, few laboratories create gene knockouts in human cell
lines due to the inefficiencies of the natural cellular homologous
recombination system and the investment of time and labor required
to screen the resulting cells. In contrast, a wealth of
peer-reviewed literature has shown that CompoZr ZFNs efficiently
generate human cell lines with precise and stable gene knockouts in
a matter of weeks.(1)
"Sigma Life Science has worked diligently to develop predesigned
CompoZr Knockout ZFNs for each gene in the human genome to make
this ground breaking technology more readily available to the
research community," said David
Smoller, Chief Scientific Officer of Sigma Life Science.
"Researchers can select a ZFN from our library and swiftly
knockout their target gene in any human cell line."
In this new offering, Sigma has designed CompoZr ZFNs that will
produce a knockout in each gene by inducing a double-strand break
at a defined site within the gene's first three exons. This
double strand break stimulates the cell's natural DNA repair
pathways, resulting in a permanent, site-specific deletion or
mutation that disrupts the gene's function. Robust and
on-target gene knockout using CompoZr Knockout ZFNs is guaranteed
by functional validation prior to shipment and unique enhancements
to the DNA-recognition and cleavage ZFN subunits.
All CompoZr Knockout ZFNs can be ordered directly through the
Your Favorite Gene powered by Ingenuity (YFG) web portal at
www.wherebiobegins.com/yfg.
More sophisticated genetic modifications, such as single
nucleotide substitutions, can be generated through Sigma Life
Science's CompoZr Custom ZFN Service. The CompoZr Targeted
Integration Kit also allows rapid integration and expression of a
gene of interest at the well-characterized adeno-associated virus
integration site 1 (AAVS1) on human chromosome 19.
Reference
(1)
http://www.sigmaaldrich.com/life-science/zinc-finger-nuclease-technology/zfn-references.html
Cautionary statement: The foregoing release contains
forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology
such as "expected," "ideally suited" or similar expressions, or by
expressed or implied discussions regarding potential future
revenues from products derived therefrom. You should not
place undue reliance on these statements. Such
forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management
regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be
materially different from any future results, performance or
achievements expressed or implied by such statements. There
can be no guarantee that CompoZr Knockout ZFNs will assist the
Company to achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future.
In particular, management's expectations regarding products
associated with CompoZr Knockout ZFNs could be affected by, among
other things, unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government
regulation generally; the Company's ability to obtain or maintain
patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection;
competition in general; government, industry and general public
pricing pressures; the impact that the foregoing factors could have
on the values attributed to the Company's assets and liabilities as
recorded in its consolidated balance sheet, and other risks and
factors referred to in Sigma-Aldrich's current Form 10-K on file
with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or
more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should
underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary
materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected.
Sigma-Aldrich is providing the information in this press
release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to
update any forward-looking statements contained in this press
release as a result of new information, future events or
otherwise.
About Sigma Life Science: Sigma Life Science is a
Sigma-Aldrich business that represents the Company's leadership in
innovative biological products and services for the global life
science market and offers an array of biologically-rich products
and reagents that researchers use in scientific investigation.
Product areas include biomolecules, genomics and functional
genomics, cells and cell-based assays, transgenics, protein assays,
stem cell research, epigenetics and custom
services/oligonucleotides. Sigma Life Science also provides
an extensive range critical bioessentials like biochemicals,
antibiotics, buffers, carbohydrates, enzymes, forensic tools,
hematology and histology, nucleotides, amino acids and their
derivatives, and cell culture media.
About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High
Technology company committed to Enabling Science to Improve the
Quality of Life. Its chemical and biochemical products and
kits are used in scientific research, including genomic and
proteomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development and
as key components in pharmaceutical, diagnostic and other high
technology manufacturing. The Company has customers in life
science companies, university and government institutions,
hospitals, and in industry. Over one million scientists and
technologists use its products. Sigma-Aldrich operates in 40
countries and has 7,900 employees providing excellent service
worldwide. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please
visit its award-winning Web site at
http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.
Sigma-Aldrich, Sigma and
CompoZr are registered trademarks of Sigma-Aldrich Co. and its
affiliate Sigma-Aldrich Biotechnology, L.P.
SOURCE Sigma Life Science