Sigma Partners with Ingex on Targeted Gene Disruption Technology

October 13, 2004 St. Louis , MO and Taufkirchen , Germany – Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (NASDAQ: SIAL), a $1.2 billion Life Science and High Technology company, has partnered with Ingex, L.L.C. to provide a revolutionary gene disruption technology.  The technology, called TargeTron™, offers a novel solution to drawbacks of current siRNA and transposon based methods.  The system provides a simple, streamlined method that allows the researcher to re-target the TargeTron group II intron for precise insertion into a host genome.   Insertion results in permanent knockout of the target gene. 

The first system will be developed for the creation of permanent gene knockouts across a broad range of prokaryotes and is anticipated to have a variety of applications in prokaryotic genetic engineering and functional genomics.  Such applications include the identification of novel drug targets and probiotics and systems biology approaches to study metabolic pathways.  Future systems are planned for targeted plant and mammalian gene disruption.

“The Sigma R&D team is collaborating with the inventors to continue to refine and further develop the TargeTron technology”, commented Keith Jolliff, Global Marketing Manager of Molecular Biology at Sigma-Aldrich. “The scientists will be supported by Sigma’s world-class sales, marketing and technical support groups.  We believe this is a winning combination for the functional genomics and systems biology research community ”.

Key advantages of TargeTron include:

§         First method for precise targeted disruption of sequences within a host genome

§         Permanent knockout or disruption of target gene

§         >90% successful targeted insertion into a variety of prokaryotic genomes

§         Potentially the most widely applicable technology across a broad range of organisms

§         Simple, streamlined procedure

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About Sigma-Aldrich: Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company.  Our biochemical and organic chemical products and kits are used in scientific and genomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and chemical manufacturing.  We have customers in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals, and in industry.  Over one million scientists and technologists use our products. Sigma-Aldrich operates in 34 countries and has 6,000 employees providing excellent service worldwide.  We are committed to the success of our Customers, Employees and Shareholders through leadership in Life Science, High Technology and Service. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit our award-winning web site at sigma-aldrich.com.

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