Sigma-Aldrich, University of Michigan Medical School Establish CRISPR Core Lab Partnership

ST. LOUIS, Sept. 18, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (Nasdaq: SIAL) announced today it has entered into a new gene editing partnership with the University of Michigan (U-M) Medical School's Vector Core. Under the partnership, Sigma-Aldrich will provide the Vector Core with Sigma CRISPR technology, experimental design consultation, and dedicated gene editing bioinformaticians.

The partnership is poised to accelerate gene editing-based research at the U-M Medical School. One initiative already underway, led by Assistant Professor Chad Brenner, involves constructing a large library of Sigma CRISPRs for precision studies of the 100 most common genes that have dysfunctions associated with cancer. Brenner's CRISPR library is expected to support the generation of an unprecedented dataset about oncogene functions and drug resistance, leading to improved decision-making for personalized medical treatment of cancer.

"A coordinated investigation at this scale has not previously been conducted and promises to help define new therapeutic targets across multiple cancers and to improve existing cancer therapies. Since CRIPSR/Cas9 can manipulate genes accurately and efficiently at a genomic scale, instead of just one or a few genes at a time, it is uniquely conducive to screening for gene networks that promote survival of cancer cells. Using this technology, we will also be able to define the genes and pathways that drive resistance to existing cancer therapies to aid in the development of more effective combination strategies for patients," said Chad Brenner, Assistant Professor, University of Michigan Medical School.

The Vector Core's partnership with Sigma-Aldrich provides the entire U-M Medical School access to the extensive experimental design, bioinformatics, and production resources that Brenner already receives from Sigma-Aldrich due to the scale of his project.

"We are pleased to partner with Vector Core and the University of Michigan Medical School to advance their research mission," said Sean Muthian, Ph.D, MBA, Director of Strategic Marketing and Collaborations at Sigma-Aldrich. "The Sigma-Aldrich CRISPR Core partnership helps accelerate the pace of translational research, removing the design and production hurdles with CRISPR or Zinc Finger Nucleases, hence allowing scientists to focus on their research."

"The CRISPR technology with Sigma-Aldrich has created significant buzz on campus. One reason is that CRISPRs afford creative targeting and screening possibilities throughout not just within the exome, which one can interrogate with shRNA, but within the approximately 100-fold larger intergenic region of the genome. The simple design and low cost of CRISPRs/Cas9 are essential to making it possible to generate transgenic animals that mirror complex phenotypes seen in humans, creating cell lines, building libraries, and large-scale screening of gene networks involved in the pathogenesis of complex diseases," said Tom Lanigan, Ph.D., Supervisor of the Vector Core at the University of Michigan Medical School. 

Cautionary Statement: The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "will lead to" 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 this or any other joint venture will assist the Company to achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding this joint venture could be affected by, among other things, 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-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich, a leading Life Science and High Technology company focused on enhancing human health and safety, manufactures and distributes 230,000 chemicals, biochemicals and other essential products to more than 1.4 million customers globally in research and applied labs as well as in industrial and commercial markets. With three distinct business units – Research, Applied and SAFC Commercial – Sigma-Aldrich is committed to enabling science to improve the quality of life. The Company operates in 37 countries, has more than 9,000 employees worldwide and had sales of $2.7 billion in 2013. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its website at www.sigma-aldrich.com.

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SOURCE Sigma-Aldrich