The Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research didn’t waste any time putting recently published knockout rat technology to work.1,2 The foundation and Sigma-Aldrich Corp. have partnered to develop models of Parkinson’s disease and hope to make five rat models available for research use within a year.

St. Louis, MO – October 20, 2009 – Sigma-Aldrich® (NASDAQ: SIAL) today announced the launch of the SAGE™ Priority Partners Program, through which the Company plans to build a network of researchers to evaluate the ‘knockout’ rat models it is developing to support pre-clinical research work across a number of medical fields, including Neurobiology, Toxicology, Cardiology, Immunology and others.

Program Enables Researchers to Have Knockout Rats and Mice
Produced in as Little as Four to Five Months

ST. LOUIS and RICHMOND, Calif., Oct 05, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX News Network/ -- Sigma-Aldrich Corporation (Nasdaq: SIAL) and Sangamo BioSciences, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) today announced a major expansion of their existing license agreement to include the exclusive rights to develop and distribute zinc finger DNA binding protein (ZFP)-modified cell lines for commercial production of protein pharmaceuticals. Additionally, Sigma-Aldrich licensed rights to certain ZFP-engineered transgenic animals for commercial applications.