Sigma(R) Life Science Adds 2,200 New Prestige Antibodies(R) Powered by Atlas Antibodies AB to Its Portfolio

ST. LOUIS, March 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sigma® Life Science, the innovative biological products and services brand of Sigma-Aldrich® (Nasdaq: SIAL), today announced that it has added 2,200 new Prestige Antibodies® powered by Atlas Antibodies to its industry-leading portfolio.  The development brings Sigma Life Science's total Prestige Antibody portfolio to 8,300, covering 6,900 human protein targets, and further expands the Company's overall monoclonal and polyclonal antibody offering to over 30,000 in total.  

Available immediately at www.wherebiobegins.com/biomolecules/products/prestige-antibodies/, this new addition to the Sigma Life Science Prestige Antibody portfolio is the fourth wave to be delivered since the Company entered into its exclusive partnership with Atlas Antibodies AB in February 2008.  Under the terms of this partnership, both companies share co-exclusive distribution in Europe, while Sigma-Aldrich is the exclusive distributor in the North American, Asia Pacific and Latin American regions.

"Successful biological research depends on high-quality, specialized reagents for use in protein characterization, functional studies and cell-based assays," commented Becki Davis, Product Manager, Antibodies, Sigma Life Science. "With the expansion of our exclusive offering of Prestige Antibodies - the industry's most highly-validated antibodies - we offer one of the largest, premium quality selections.  In addition, Prestige Antibodies are standardized in universal protocols, resulting in efficient, more effective research."

Prestige Antibodies are validated by the Human Protein Atlas (HPA) Program, a genome-wide program with a primary goal of producing a complete localization map of the human proteome which currently contains expression profiles and sub-cellular localization for close to 7,000 proteins. The goal of the Human Protein Atlas is to develop at least one antibody to all 20,265 non-redundant human proteins by 2015.  Each antibody is standardized in universal protocols with over 700 immunohistochemistry, immunofluorescence and Western blot images per antibody and all data is publicly available through the Human Protein Atlas.  

"Our partnership with Sigma-Aldrich over the past couple of years has enabled us, through Sigma's strong brand awareness and global distribution network, to successfully target proteomics and cell biology researchers who, in turn, are now benefiting from using Prestige Antibodies," commented Marianne Hansson, co-founder and CEO of Atlas Antibodies AB.  "As Sigma continues to grow its market presence, we will continue to add new products to our portfolio and make these available on an ongoing basis through Sigma to the research communities."

"As the leading source for biomolecules to the life sciences and biology markets, our mission is to enhance the understanding of biology for every researcher and facilitate the research work that is rewriting the rules of science and medicine," added Dr. David Smoller, President of Sigma-Aldrich's Research Biotech business unit. "Extending our offering of high-quality, highly validated Prestige Antibodies further enables proteomics and cell biology researchers worldwide to understand biology and the study of disease. As part of our recently-launched 'Where Bio Begins' initiative, we have created a Biomolecules microsite which provides researchers and biologists with targeted information on biologically-rich products and technologies, including easy access to our entire range of antibodies."

Further Prestige Antibodies product and ordering information can be found online at: http://www.wherebiobegins.com/biomolecules/products/prestige-antibodies/

Cautionary statement: The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "largest, premium quality selections," "resulting in efficient, more effective research," "continues to grow its market presence," "rewriting the rules of science and medicine," or similar expressions, or by express 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 Prestige Antibodies will continue to meet the demands of the marketplace. Nor can there be any guarantee that any of these products will achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding these 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 brand that represents Sigma'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. 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 38 countries and has 7,700 employees providing excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to Accelerating Customers' Success through Innovation and Leadership in Life Science, High Technology and Service. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.

About Atlas Antibodies AB:  Atlas Antibodies was founded in 2006 by researchers at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm and the Rudbeck Laboratory, Uppsala University in Uppsala, Sweden. Atlas Antibodies will handle the production, marketing and sales of the antibody products developed and validated in the Human Proteome Resource (HPR) Center.

The Human Protein Atlas (HPA) program is performing a systematic exploration of the human proteome with Affinity (Antibody) based Proteomics, combining high-throughput generation of affinity-purified (mono-specific) antibodies with protein profiling using tissue microarrays. The Human Protein Atlas (HPA) Center is located in Stockholm and Uppsala, Sweden and is funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. The HPA program generates expression and localization patterns of proteins in a large portion of both normal and cancer human tissues and organs resulting in the antibody-based profiling presented in the publicly available Human Protein Atlas (HPA) (www.proteinatlas.org). The HPA vision is to enable the systematic generation of quality assured antibodies to all non-redundant human proteins and to use these reagents to functionally explore human proteins, protein variants and protein interactions.

Sigma-Aldrich, Sigma and Prestige Antibodies are trademarks of Sigma-Aldrich Biotechnology L.P. and Sigma-Aldrich Co.

SOURCE Sigma-Aldrich