ST. LOUIS, July 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Sigma Life Science,
the innovative biological products and services research business
of Sigma-Aldrich® (Nasdaq: SIAL), today announced the expansion of
its CompoZr® Oncology Disease Model portfolio with the release of
the first in its collection of breast cancer-specific knockout and
knockin cell lines for drug discovery and research. These modified
epithelial cell lines are expected to provide researchers with a
characterized and known genetic background for basic research and
pathway analysis. They are supplied with isogenic parental cell
lines to allow high throughput, cell-based screening for drug
discovery, target validation and mechanistic studies. For more
information, visit www.sigma.com/breastcancercells.
Important breast cancer genes – such as Estrogen Receptor, PTEN
and HER2 – have been targeted using Sigma Life Science's
proprietary Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) technology, to create stable
and heritable genomic knockouts and to provide new cellular models
of cancer. These modified human epithelial cell lines, including
MCF10A, among others, offer researchers the complete knockout of
disease-relevant target gene expression.
Supriya Shivakumar, Global
Marketing Manager at Sigma Life Science, said, "These new knockout
breast cancer cell lines, created using Sigma's ground-breaking
CompoZr® ZFN technology, are expected to be ideal for high
throughput screens to determine whether patient-relevant genetic
alterations affect drug sensitivity or drug resistance. Researchers
now have immediate access to high-quality knockout isogenic human
cell lines, which should reduce the costs and labor required for
basic research and drug discovery, and could accelerate the
development of personalized medicine."
Cautionary statement: The foregoing release contains
forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology
such as "expected," "offers," "can," "should" 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 the CompoZr Oncology Disease Model products
described herein will assist the Company to achieve any particular
levels of revenue in the future. In particular, management's
expectations regarding products associated with CompoZr Oncology
Disease Model products 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 8,000 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. LLC.
SOURCE Sigma-Aldrich