Sigma Life Science, the innovative biological products and research services business of Sigma-Aldrich^® Corporation (Nasdaq:SIAL), today announced that its genetically modified reporter cell lines - based on the CompoZr zinc finger nuclease (ZFN) technology - has taken the silver medal position in The Scientist magazine's Top Ten Innovations for 2010. This latest award continues Sigma Life Science's track record of success in the magazine's prestigious life science innovation competition, following third place in 2008's inaugural awards for the CompoZr custom zinc finger nuclease service, and fifth place for SAGE^TM Labs' SAGEspeed^TM rat model creation process in 2009. 

This latest success recognizes the power of Sigma Life Science's CompoZr ZFN technology for genetic manipulation, and underscores the potential of Sigma's newly launched portfolio of genetically modified mammalian cell lines for furthering fundamental understanding of cell biology and accelerating cell-based research. The proprietary ZFN technology allows precise insertion, substitution or deletion of genes of interest. Dave Smoller, president of Sigma Life Science, commented: "The power of ZFN technology is rapidly being recognized as the new benchmark for genetic manipulation, and Sigma Life Science is dedicated to pushing the limits of this technology while ensuring scientists have access to the research tools they need. Our ongoing success in The Scientist's Top Ten Innovations competition demonstrates our commitment to use the CompoZr platform to deliver innovative products that will help to drive scientific discovery." 

This potent technology has been harnessed to create an exciting new range of genetically modified reporter cell lines, as well as specific isogenic lines initially designed to advance colorectal and breast cancer research. The first CompoZr cellular reporter cell lines were launched in November 2010, and have been optimized for live cell imaging applications. Incorporating fluorescent tags at endogenous loci of the genes of interest, these new offerings avoid the additional stresses and potential toxicity issues associated with protein overexpression in live cells, as well as eliminating the need for tedious staining procedures. 

For more information about Sigma Life Science's cell line products, visit http://www.wherebiobegins.com/biocells. 

Cautionary statement: The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "underscores the potential," "rapidly been recognized," "our commitment," "designed to advance" or similar expressions, or by expressed 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 CompoZr cell lines will achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding CompoZr cell lines 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 business that represents the Company'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 that is committed to enabling science to improve the quality of life. 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 40 countries and has 7,700 employees providing excellent service worldwide. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its award-winning website at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com.

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