Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, a leading life science and technology company, has entered into an exclusive agreement with the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute to manufacture and distribute the Sanger Institute's arrayed lentiviral CRISPR library. The library will be the first of its kind, providing researchers with a collection of individual clones designed to knock out every known human and mouse protein-coding gene using the CRISPR system.

Since its discovery two years ago, the use of CRISPR technology is becoming ubiquitous in molecular biology labs around the world. By using CRISPR to precisely knock out single genes in cellular and animal models, researchers can identify critical components in basic biology, particularly as they relate to understanding the genetic underpinnings of disease onset and progression.

"The Sanger Institute is devoted to producing research findings and resources that help to improve our understanding of biology and healthcare. The CRISPR technology will play an increasingly important role in achieving this objective," says Emmanouil Metzakopian, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute. "A key part of that ambition is to deliver that understanding and those resources into the hands of other researchers. Partnering with a company committed to furthering this technology in the way that Sigma-Aldrich has been was the best way to accomplish this goal."

"Sigma-Aldrich is excited about the timing and synergy of this collaboration," said Shawn Shafer, Ph.D., Functional Genomics Manager for Sigma-Aldrich. "The Sanger Institute is renowned for the scope and quality of its scientific endeavors, and it is leading the way once again with the creation of these whole genome arrayed lentiviral CRISPR libraries. Sigma-Aldrich has been working in the genome editing field for more than a decade, and we are excited to partner with an organization that shares the same vision and passion for the technology. The Sanger CRISPR library could lead to the discovery of novel drugs or unknown mechanisms of disease, and Sigma-Aldrich looks forward to getting this important tool into researchers' hands."

Sigma-Aldrich plans to launch the glycerol and lentiviral versions of the Sanger Institute human CRISPR library in 2015. Preorders are being accepted for all versions of the library with priority given to members of Sigma-Aldrich's CRISPR Core lab partnership. The addition of the Sanger CRISPR collection to its portfolio continues Sigma-Aldrich's history of making and supporting lentiviral screening libraries. Sigma-Aldrich is the sole manufacturer of the complete Mission shRNA library, a compilation of more than 330,000 clones that is the largest, most distributed shRNA library in the world. Sigma-Aldrich also has extensive genome-editing experience and was the first company to commercially offer genome editing reagents (zinc finger nucleases) to the global research community.