Sigma-Aldrich, a leading $ 1.7 billion life science company and member of The RNAi consortium (TRC), announced that the company is pleased to welcome researchers from The Wistar Institute, Mayo Clinic, Tufts University, Princeton University, the Moores Cancer Centre at the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), and Washington University in St. Louis to the Sigma RNAi Partnership Programme.

Sigma-Aldrich established the RNAi Partnership Programme to advance functional genomic research by providing tools for RNA interference (RNAi) through collaborations with select academic institutions. These newest members of the programme join partners Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ) in gaining access to the broad functional genomic portfolio developed by Sigma-Aldrich, including early exposure to emerging new techniques, a broad portfolio of intellectual property and pertinent reagents from Sigma-Aldrich's extensive RNAi product lines. This portfolio includes access to the lentivirus-based MISSION TRC shrank libraries that target more than 15,000 human and mouse genes.

"We proudly welcome The Wistar Institute and the RNA Interference Technology Resource of Mayo Clinic along with scientists at Tufts University, Princeton University, Moiré's Cancer Centre and Washington University as the newest members of the RNAi Partnership Programme," said Christina Bailey, Global Strategic Market Manager, Functional Genomic. "We are pleased to provide access to our growing collection of RNAi tools to these dedicated cancer researchers."

Hilary Coller, Assistant Professor of Molecular Biology, Princeton University, said: "We are very enthusiastic about joining the Partnership with Sigma-Aldrich. We have found the Mission lentiviral backbone to achieve high efficiency transduction. This opens up for us the exciting possibility of doing genetic screens in primary human cells."

"The Moores UCSD Cancer Centre has enthusiastically entered into a relationship with Sigma-Aldrich to provide access to MISSION RNAi lentiviral shrank knockdown vectors to investigators at the Cancer Centre," said Jean Y J Wang, Ph D, Prof. of Medicine at the UCSD School of Medicine. "Our initial characterization of these reagents leads us to believe that this RNAi knockdown platform will be widely useful for cancer target discovery and verification, and that the lentiviral backbone and technological support provided by Sigma-Aldrich make for rapid and easy adaptation of these reagents to a wide variety of gene knockdown experiments carried out by basic and translational investigators at the Moores UCSD Cancer Centre."

Meenhard Herlyn, D V M, prof. and co-leader of the Molecular and Cellular Oncogenesis Programme at The Wistar Institute, added: "The RNAi Partnership Programme with Sigma-Aldrich puts The Wistar Institute in an enviable position to directly access the world's foremost collection of shrank vectors offered by TRC.

"From the Institute's standpoint, we can utilize such cutting-edge technology to help achieve a vast number of research-related goals. Using these tools from TRC, we can specifically inhibit gene expression and functionality at costs similar to small molecule inhibitors without the extraneous drawbacks of those compounds. We continue to be excited about both the platform and the solid technical support provided to us through this partnership with Sigma-Aldrich."