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Sigma-Aldrich Forms RNAi Collaboration With Academic Research Leaders

Posted on: Thursday, 14 September 2006, 18:00 CDT

ST. LOUIS, Sept. 14 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sigma-Aldrich , a leading $1.7 billion life science company and member of The RNAi consortium (TRC), is pleased to welcome researchers from The Wistar Institute, Mayo Clinic, Tufts University, Princeton University, the Moores Cancer Center at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and Washington University in St. Louis to the Sigma RNAi Partnership Program.

Sigma-Aldrich established the RNAi Partnership Program to advance functional genomics research by providing tools for RNA interference (RNAi) through collaborations with select academic institutions. These newest members of the program join partners Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) in gaining access to the broad functional genomic portfolio developed by Sigma-Aldrich, including early exposure to emerging new techniques, a broad portfolio of intellectual property and pertinent reagents from Sigma-Aldrich's extensive RNAi product lines. This portfolio includes access to the lentivirus-based MISSION(TM) TRC shRNA libraries that target more than 15,000 human and mouse genes.

"We proudly welcome The Wistar Institute and the RNA Interference Technology Resource of Mayo Clinic along with scientists at Tufts University, Princeton University, Moore's Cancer Center and Washington University as the newest members of the RNAi Partnership Program," said Christina Bailey, Global Strategic Market Manager, Functional Genomics. "We are pleased to provide access to our growing collection of RNAi tools to these dedicated cancer researchers."

Hilary Coller, Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, said: "We are very enthusiastic about joining the Partnership with Sigma-Aldrich. We have found the MISSION lentiviral backbone to achieve high efficiency transduction. This opens up for us the exciting possibility of doing genetic screens in primary human cells."

"The Moores UCSD Cancer Center has enthusiastically entered into a relationship with Sigma-Aldrich to provide access to MISSION RNAi (TRC) lentiviral shRNA knockdown vectors to investigators at the Cancer Center," said Jean Y.J. Wang, Ph.D., Professor of Medicine at the UCSD School of Medicine. "Our initial characterization of these reagents leads us to believe that this RNAi knockdown platform will be widely useful for cancer target discovery and verification, and that the lentiviral backbone and technological support provided by Sigma-Aldrich make for rapid and easy adaptation of these reagents to a wide variety of gene knockdown experiments carried out by basic and translational investigators at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center."

Meenhard Herlyn, D.V.M., professor and co-leader of the Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Program at The Wistar Institute, added: "The RNAi Partnership Program with Sigma-Aldrich puts The Wistar Institute in an enviable position to directly access the world's foremost collection of shRNA vectors offered by TRC.

"From the Institute's standpoint, we can utilize such cutting-edge technology to help achieve a vast number of research-related goals. Using these tools from TRC, we can specifically inhibit gene expression and functionality at costs similar to small molecule inhibitors without the extraneous drawbacks of those compounds. We continue to be excited about both the platform and the solid technical support provided to us through this partnership with Sigma-Aldrich."

Sigma-Aldrich has made a major commitment to the rapidly developing area of RNAi. This commitment began with the establishment of a research collaboration with The RNAi Consortium (TRC), which consists of a partnership among the Broad Institute, MIT, Harvard, Dana Farber and other research organizations and several major pharmaceutical companies. This was followed by a license with MIT to make and sell the shRNA libraries developed by TRC and, subsequently, the introduction of Sigma-Aldrich's MISSION(TM) TRC shRNA Libraries. The acquisition of Proligo secured Sigma-Aldrich's ability to synthesize RNA and provided access to one of only four licenses to a key MIT patent for RNAi. Additional agreements with Alnylam, Benitec and Oxford BioMedica provide Sigma-Aldrich with a major intellectual property portfolio in RNAi.

To learn more about the Program and how to become a member, please visit us online at http://sigma-aldrich.com/rnai .

About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company. Its biochemical and organic chemical products and kits are used in scientific and genomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key components in pharmaceutical 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 35 countries and has 7,200 employees providing excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to Accelerating Customer Success through Leadership in Life Science, High Technology and Service. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its award- winning Web site at http://sigma-aldrich.com/ .

About TRC: TRC is comprised of principal investigators from world-class academic research institutions (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Medical School, the Broad Institute, Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Massachusetts General Hospital, Washington University, Columbia University, and Academia Sinica) as well as corporate sponsoring institutions (Sigma-Aldrich, Novartis, Eli Lilly, and Bristol-Myers Squibb).

The MISSION TRC shRNA clone libraries will comprise a comprehensive collection of 150,000 pre-cloned lentiviral-based shRNA vector constructs targeting 15,000 human genes (MISSION TRC-Hs1.0) and 15,000 mouse genes (MISSION TRC-Mm1.0). Design and development of the TRC libraries is being led by the Broad Institute of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Harvard. For more information about MISSION shRNA clone collections, please visit us online at http://sigma-aldrich.com/rnai .

Cautionary Statement: This release contains forward-looking statements relating to future performance, goals, strategic actions and initiatives and similar intentions and beliefs and other statements regarding the Company's expectations, goals, beliefs, intentions and the like, which involve assumptions regarding the Company's operations and conditions in the markets the Company serves. The Company does not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements.

Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20050215/CGSIGMAALLOGOAP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com

Sigma-Aldrich

CONTACT: Sean Battles of Sigma-Aldrich, +1-314-286-7616,sean.battles@sial.com

Web site: http://www.sigma-aldrich.com/http://sigma-aldrich.com/rnai

Source: PRNewswire-FirstCall

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