Sigma-Aldrich Welcomes the University of Edinburgh to the RNAi Partnership Program

06-Oct-2006

Sigma-Aldrich, a member of The RNAi Consortium (TRC) proudly welcomes the University of Edinburgh to the RNAi Partnership Program. As the newest member of the RNAi Partnership Program, the University of Edinburgh gains access to cutting-edge products in Sigma-Aldrich's functional genomics portfolio, including TRC shRNA libraries that target more than 15,000 human and another 15,000 mouse genes.

"We are very pleased to be able to expand our working relationship with the University of Edinburgh," said Henry van Oudenaren, Sigma-Aldrich's Regional Managing Director for the UK and Ireland. "And we will continue to look for innovative ways that Sigma-Aldrich can accelerate this partner's success."

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Simon Brown, a Group Leader at the University of Edinburgh/MRC Centre for Inflammation Research (CIR), said: "We are pleased to become a member of the Sigma-Aldrich RNAi Partnership Program and look forward to a productive collaboration. Access to the TRC Mission shRNA Library will greatly accelerate our ability to prioritize genes that are of particular interest to us, which we have identified from various proteomic and genomic screens. In having access to three to five pre-packaged lentiviral particles per target gene for the knock-down of over 15,000 transcripts, excluding alternatively spliced variants, we have a resource that provides significant and ever increasing coverage of both the human and mouse genome. Furthermore, shRNA allows us to bypass chemical siRNA for a more efficient viral transduction approach, both in vitro and in vivo."

Through the RNAi Partnership Program, Sigma-Aldrich aims to establish collaborations with select academic institutions to advance functional genomics research by aiding academic researchers with early exposure to emerging new techniques, a broad portfolio of intellectual property and special partnership pricing on Sigma-Aldrich's extensive RNAi product lines. Members of the RNAi Partnership Program enjoy unique access to cutting-edge tools for studying the underlying cause of disease and elucidating basic gene function.

Sigma-Aldrich's rapidly growing offering includes various products positioned along the functional genomic research workflow, such as the lentivirus-based MISSION(TM) TRC shRNA libraries, activated lentiviral particles, custom siRNA and QPCR reagents.

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 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.

Existing members of the Sigma RNAi Partnership Program include Rutgers University, University of Medicine & Dentistry New Jersey, The Wistar Institute, Tufts University, Washington University of Saint Louis, Moore's Cancer Center UCSD, and others.

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