ST. LOUIS, Nov. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Sigma-Aldrich , a $1.7 billion Life Science and High Technology company and member of The RNAi Consortium (TRC), proudly welcomes Dublin City University to the RNAi Partnership Program. As one of the early members of the RNAi Partnership Program, Dublin City University gains access to cutting-edge products in Sigma-Aldrich’s functional genomics portfolio, including MISSION(TM) TRC shRNA libraries that target more than 15,000 human and another 15,000 mouse genes.
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 its 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.
“We are always looking for ways to work more closely with our customers, enabling them to be constantly involved in pushing forward the boundaries of research with the latest cutting-edge technologies,” said John Lewis, Country Manager, Sigma-Aldrich Ireland. “We are delighted to have Dr. Ronan Murphy and the Vascular Health Research Group in Dublin City University closely involved with the Sigma-Aldrich RNAi Partnership Program. We hope that this will be one of many occasions where we can support our colleagues in academia by this type of partnership.”
Ronan Murphy, a Group Leader at the Vascular Health Research Centre, Dublin City University, said: “We are delighted to join the Sigma-Aldrich RNAi Partnership Program and look forward to a productive collaboration. We currently study the regulation of integrin receptors in cells, focusing mainly on their role in vascular disease. The work has major relevance, through collaborations, in areas such as Immunology, Hematology, Cancer and Neuro biology. Having identified a large number of genes potentially involved in vascular disease, access to the TRC MISSION shRNA Library will greatly accelerate our ability to prioritize genes that are functionally relevant.”
Murphy and his research group, including Paul Fitzpatrick and Mishan Britto, along with colleague Dr. Philip Cummins, have already begun utilizing this powerful technology in their studies.
Sigma-Aldrich’s rapidly growing product offering includes various products positioned along the functional genomic research workflow, such as the lentivirus-based MISSION 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 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.
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, University of Edinburgh, among others.
To find out more about the Program and how to become a member, 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 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). As a scientific collaborator and distribution partner through agreement with MIT, Sigma-Aldrich is working with TRC to provide the scientific community with RNAi tools for functional genomics research specifically for gene function discovery and the study of disease. 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.
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CONTACT: Sean Battles, Sigma-Aldrich, +1-314-286-7616, orsean.battles@sial.com
