Sigma Life Science, the innovative biological products and services research business of Sigma-Aldrich (SIAL), announced the release of its pre-designed CompoZr Knockout Zinc Finger Nucleases (ZFNs) technology to knockout any gene in the human genome. The new offer, attractively priced to fit within the budget of a typical laboratory, can generate permanent and heritable gene knockouts in human cell lines within weeks.

Currently, few laboratories create gene knockouts in human cell lines due to the inefficiencies of the natural cellular homologous recombination system and the investment of time and labor required to screen the resulting cells. In contrast, a wealth of peer-reviewed literature has shown that CompoZr ZFNs efficiently generate human cell lines with precise and stable gene knockouts in a matter of weeks.

"Sigma Life Science has worked diligently to develop predesigned CompoZr Knockout ZFNs for each gene in the human genome to make this ground breaking technology more readily available to the research community," said David Smoller, chief scientific officer of Sigma Life Science. "Researchers can select a ZFN from our library and swiftly knockout their target gene in any human cell line."

In this new offering, Sigma has designed CompoZr ZFNs that will produce a knockout in each gene by inducing a double-strand break at a defined site within the gene's first three exons. This double strand break stimulates the cell's natural DNA repair pathways, resulting in a permanent, site-specific deletion or mutation that disrupts the gene's function. Robust and on-target gene knockout using CompoZr Knockout ZFNs is guaranteed by functional validation prior to shipment and unique enhancements to the DNA-recognition and cleavage ZFN subunits.

More sophisticated genetic modifications, such as single nucleotide substitutions, can be generated through Sigma Life Science's CompoZr Custom ZFN Service. The CompoZr Targeted Integration Kit also allows rapid integration and expression of a gene of interest at the well-characterized adeno-associated virus integration site 1 (AAVS1) on human chromosome 19.

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.