ST. LOUIS, Aug. 3, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Sigma Life Science,
the innovative biological products and services research business
of Sigma-Aldrich® (Nasdaq: SIAL), today announced a major
breakthrough in the development of its proprietary CompoZr zinc
finger nuclease (ZFN) technology with the release of more Knockout
ZFNs covering the entire genomes of both mice and rats, while the
pricing of products within the CompoZr ZFN portfolio by half. A new
dedicated high-throughput manufacturing center, together with
advances in ZFN design algorithms and production processes, has led
to cost reductions in the development and production for both
CompoZr Custom and Knockout ZFNs. This has allowed Sigma Life
Science to extend the range of its Knockout ZFNs and to make ZFN
technology more affordable to the scientific community. For more
information visit www.sigma.com/zfn.
The increased capacity of the new manufacturing facility allows
Sigma Life Science to rapidly develop its CompoZr Knockout ZFN
portfolio, bringing the advantages of this technology to many
previously underserved research fields. The expansion of the
Knockout ZFNs for every mouse and rat gene is in its initial phase,
which complements the existing range of Knockout ZFNs for the
entire human genome. This exciting milestone in genome editing can
enable the scientific community to pursue previously unachievable
research quickly and easily with validated tools, avoiding the
cost, time and uncertainty associated with other techniques.
ZFN technology has been widely recognized as the most efficient
and versatile method of genetic engineering for cell lines and
whole organisms, offering precisely targeted, permanent and
heritable modifications in a fraction of the time required using
more traditional technologies. ZFNs have been broadly adopted
within the biotechnology and pharmaceutical sectors, but the high
cost of designing and manufacturing CompoZr ZFNs has at times
limited the research community's access to this technology. To
address this issue, Sigma Life Science invested heavily in
advancing both its design and production processes to drive down
costs and in an effort to help researchers accelerate scientific
discovery. The new development and manufacturing facility is
expected to ensure affordable pricing for Sigma's complete range of
CompoZr ZFN offerings and further extend the scope of this powerful
genome editing technology.
David Smoller, Chief Scientific
Officer at Sigma Life Science, commented, "Sigma Life Science has
reached another milestone in our quest to provide the research
community with greater access to ZFN technology. CompoZr ZFNs are
now available in multiple formats, multiple species and at more
accessible pricing. It is now our objective to continue to drive
the development of new applications for CompoZr ZFNs, while
maintaining this vital affordability."
Cautionary statement: The foregoing release contains
forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology
such as "can enable," "expected," "our objective," or similar
expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding
potential future revenues from products derived there from. 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 ZFN Technology will assist the Company to
achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. In
particular, management's expectations regarding products associated
with that CompoZr ZFN Technology 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 8,300 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