ST. LOUIS, Dec. 2, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- Sigma Life Science,
the innovative biological products and research services business
of Sigma-Aldrich® Corporation (Nasdaq: SIAL), today announced that
its genetically modified reporter cell lines – based on the CompoZr
zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology – takes the silver medal
position in The Scientist magazine's Top Ten Innovations for
2010. This latest award continues Sigma Life Science's track record
of success in the magazine's prestigious life science innovation
competition, following third place in 2008's inaugural awards for
the CompoZr custom zinc finger nuclease service, and fifth place
for SAGE™ Labs' SAGEspeed™ rat model creation process in 2009.
(Photo:
http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20101202/CG11435)
This latest success recognizes the power of Sigma Life Science's
CompoZr ZFN technology for genetic manipulation and underscores the
potential of Sigma's newly launched portfolio of genetically
modified mammalian cell lines for furthering fundamental
understanding of cell biology and accelerating cell-based research.
The proprietary ZFN technology allows precise insertion,
substitution or deletion of genes of interest. Dave Smoller, president of Sigma Life Science,
commented: "The power of ZFN technology is rapidly being recognized
as the new benchmark for genetic manipulation and Sigma Life
Science is dedicated to pushing the limits of this technology
while, ensuring scientists have access to the research tools they
need. Our ongoing success in The Scientist's Top Ten Innovations
competition demonstrates our commitment to use the CompoZr platform
to deliver innovative products that will help to drive scientific
discovery."
This potent technology has been harnessed to create an exciting
new range of genetically modified reporter cell lines, as well as
specific isogenic lines initially designed to advance colorectal
and breast cancer research. The first CompoZr cellular reporter
cell lines were launched in November
2010, and have been optimized for live cell imaging
applications. Incorporating fluorescent tags at endogenous loci of
the genes of interest, these new offerings avoid the additional
stresses and potential toxicity issues associated with protein
overexpression in live cells, as well as eliminating the need for
tedious staining procedures.
For more information about Sigma Life Science's cell line
products, visit http://www.wherebiobegins.com/biocells.
Cautionary statement: The foregoing release contains
forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology
such as "underscores the potential," "rapidly been recognized,"
"our commitment," "designed to advance" 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
cell lines will achieve any particular levels of revenue in the
future. In particular, management's expectations regarding CompoZr
cell lines 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 that is committed to enabling science to improve
the quality of life. Its biochemical and organic chemical 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. Sigma-Aldrich 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 7,700 employees providing excellent service
worldwide. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit
its award-winning website at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.
Sigma-Aldrich, Sigma and
CompoZr are trademarks of Sigma-Aldrich Biotechnology L.P. and
Sigma-Aldrich Co.
SOURCE Sigma-Aldrich