Sigma-Aldrich Signs Exclusive Agreement to Commercialize Transplex™ Whole Transcriptome Amplification Technology

Sigma-Aldrich is pleased to announce an exclusive licensing agreement with Rubicon Genomics to further develop and commercialize their TransPlex™ Whole Transcriptome Amplification (WTA) technology.

The TransPlex technology is the fastest, most sensitive and robust method available for amplifying total RNA from a variety of sample sources such as animals, plants, and microorganisms. Under the terms of the agreement, Rubicon retains all rights to TransPlex for molecular diagnostics.

"We are excited to have this opportunity to expand our relationship with Rubicon," said Keith Jolliff, Director of Marketing for Genomics and Functional Genomics. "Sigma-Aldrich is committed to bringing best-in-class- technologies to the genomic research community, and the TransPlex™ Whole Transcriptome Amplification kit is clearly in that category."

John Langmore, VP of Commercial Development at Rubicon, said: "Rubicon is very pleased that Sigma-Aldrich will be marketing TransPlex kits to complement the very successful GenomePlex® Whole Genome Amplification kits. We have confidence that their customers will embrace TransPlex for biological research and development of diagnostic products."

TransPlex WTA creates a cDNA library from the isolated RNA template and then amplifies the library in a single PCR reaction. The TransPlex reagents and protocols, optimized to ensure a linear representation of all expressed genes and exons, allow RNA samples to be amplified 1,000-10,000 fold in less than four hours. This technology is highly robust and works well even when the RNA is partially degraded, as in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue.