Sigma expands ZFN modified cell line product

Sangamo BioSciences receives royalties from the sale of ZFN modified cell lines.

http://finance.yahoo.com/news/qualyst-transporter-solutions-announces-license-121000015.html
Qualyst Transporter Solutions (QTS) is pleased to announce the completion of a non-exclusive license agreement with BioReliance®, Sigma-Aldrich Corporation's biologics and early-development services business under SAFC® Commercial (www.sigmaaldrich.com/safc) to allow QTS' proprietary B-CLEAR^® Technology to be used in their new transporter knock-out products and in HepaRG™-related contract research services. These products aim to exclude key drug transporters, such as BSEP, OATPs, and P-gp, from the hepatic HepaRG cell line in order to assess their impact in drug disposition and drug interactions. The B-CLEAR^® Technology was used in the development of these cell line products to ensure proper transporter function and it can also be used by end-users after purchasing the products.

Sigma has generated transporter knock-out cell lines using the CompoZr® Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) technology in HepaRG™ cells which will allow researchers to discern effects from a single transporter. This has historically been a challenge as primary hepatocytes, and HepaRG cells, express all of the hepatic transporters, which means that isolating effects from a single transporter has been very difficult. QTS has been able to provide the means, through B-CLEAR^®, to measure compound uptake and efflux into the bile pocket. In addition, the method can evaluate the overall integrated effect of transporters and metabolism together by measuring the intracellular concentration of a compound. The intracellular concentration is the result of the balance of all of these processes and the driving force for everything that happens inside a hepatocyte.