Sigma Life Science, the innovative biological products and services research business of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (Nasdaq:SIAL), today announced the availability of over 10,000 MISSION 3' UTR Lenti GoClones, powered by SwitchGear Genomics Inc., for straightforward microRNA (miRNA) target validation. This novel target reporter system combines SwitchGear Genomics' reporter assay expertise with Sigma Life Science's patented lentiviral technology to provide ready-to-use vectors that can enable scientists to understand gene regulation in a variety of cell types, including primary cells. The library is available through Sigma Life Science's fully searchable Your Favorite Gene powered by Ingenuity(YFG) web portal www.wherebiobegins.com/yfg. 

SwitchGear Genomics' GoClone miRNA target sets are already widely used for investigation of gene regulation by micro RNAs and the availability of these highly regarded reporter vectors in Sigma's versatile lentiviral format can provide stable transfection into a broad range of cell types - including difficult to transfect lines such as primary cells and stem cells - without the need for time-consuming and laborious reporter cloning.  

"This is a very exciting joint effort," said Dr. Nathan Trinklein, CEO and co-founder of SwitchGear Genomics. "The combination of SwitchGear Genomics' unique technology with Sigma's industry-leading lentiviral technology and production capabilities will enable researchers to study miRNA function and gene regulation on an unprecedented scale."  

Dr. Supriya Shivakumar, Global Commercial Marketing Manager for Functional Genomics at Sigma Life Science, added: "This novel reporter technology in a lentiviral format is another example of how Sigma is responding to the specific needs of the research community, creating off-the-shelf solutions to accelerate the understanding of miRNA regulation in the most relevant cell types. This genome-wide collection of MISSION 3' UTR Lenti GoClones will allow scientists to develop stable reporter lines quickly and easily for virtually any cell type, providing unique tools to further the fundamental understanding of gene regulation." 

To find out more, go to http://www.wherebiobegins.com/lentigoclone 

Cautionary statement: The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "ensures," "is responding to," "is expected to," "will allow," 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 the miRNA Target Validation System will continue to meet the demands of the marketplace. Nor can there be any guarantee that any of the products from the miRNA Target Validation System will achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. In particular, management's expectations regarding the miRNA Target Validation System 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 committed to Enabling Science to Improve the Quality of Life. Its chemical and biochemical 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. 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 40 countries and has 7,900 employees providing excellent service worldwide. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its award-winning Web site at http://www.sigma-aldrich.com. 

About SwitchGear Genomics, Inc: SwitchGear Genomics, Inc. is a leading provider of products for studying regulatory elements in the human genome. The company has developed a comprehensive approach to generate new insights into gene regulatory networks and allow researchers to efficiently screen entire pathways in living cells. SwitchGear was founded in March 2005 by Dr. Richard Myers, Dr. Nathan Trinklein and Dr. Shelley Force Aldred from Stanford University. For more information about SwitchGear, please visit the company's website at http://www.switchgeargenomics.com.  

Sigma-Aldrich and Sigma are registered trademarks of Sigma-Aldrich and its affiliate Sigma-Aldrich Biotechnology, L.P. SwitchGear Genomics and GoClone are trademarks of SwitchGear Genomics, Inc.