Sigma-Aldrich to manufacture Wellcome CRISPR library
The clone collection belongs to the Sanger Institute, a genomics non-profit funded by the Wellcome Trust. The arrayed glycerol and lentiviral library will offer knock-outs of every known human and mouse protein-coding gene, say the organisations.
Since the discovery of CRISPR (Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats) technology two years ago, the tool has been used to knock out single genes in cellular and animal models more precisely than other methods. For now, scientists are using the tech to model disease and in pre-clinical drug discovery – often offered by CROs – but CRISPR also has the potential to alter patients’ DNA in vivoto cure genetic diseases. The later use is currently banned by regulators.
‘Priority’ customers
Sigma-Aldrich plans to launch the library to clients later this year, giving priority to members of the company’s CRISPR core lab partnership, which include centres at Columbia, NYU, Rutgers, the Universities of Florida, Michigan, and Texas, and Helsinki University.
"Sigma-Aldrich is excited about the timing and synergy of this collaboration," said Shawn Shafer, head of functional genomics for Sigma-Aldrich. "The Sanger Institute is renowned for the scope and quality of its scientific endeavours, 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."
US company Cellecta announced the launch of its own CRISPR research library earlier this year.
