CompoZr^® Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) Award Program

Rewarding Innovators with the Best Tools

How to Apply
Application Submission Dates
Project Areas
Previous CompoZr ZFN Award Program Winner

The CompoZr Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) Award Program will award a grant for four different CompoZr Custom ZFN projects, each with an approximate retail value of $35,000 USD, to candidates with innovative applications of this technology. Two ZFN grants will be awarded every six months to projects judged on their scientific merit by a panel of scientists selected by Sigma Life Science.

Open to those engaged in life science research and actively employed by an academic, not-for-profit or government institution, this program will provide an opportunity to conduct research using the technology featured in the Top 10 Innovations of 2008, and again in 2009, by The Scientist magazine.

The CompoZr ZFN platform provides the ability to target and precisely manipulate the genome of living cells, resulting in cell lines or whole organisms with defined gene deletions, insertions, or modifications. CompoZr ZFN technology is offered as a custom service for developing ZFNs for specific gene targets and has recently been expanded to include a ZFN-based kit for targeted transgene insertion and a catalog of pre-constructed and pre-validated ZFNs for commonly studied gene targets, gene families, and pathways. Applications for Sigma's new platform technology include creation of knockout and knock-in cell lines, cell lines that yield significantly greater amounts of protein, and novel transgenic animal models. To learn more about the Custom ZFN Service and its applications, please go to www.compozrzfn.com.

How to Apply

Download application form here. (Please use Adobe^® Reader^® version 9 or higher to complete the form.)

Complete application form as directed and return application form to zfnaward@sial.com 

A confirmation email indicating your application has been received will be sent.

Application Submission Dates

The CompoZr ZFN Award Program is now accepting proposals in the following period:

• 01 December 2010 through 31 May 2011 with two winners announced in June 2011

Projects in the Following Areas Encouraged:

In no particular order of importance.

• Stem cell biology
• Cell signalling
• Cancer research
• Drug discovery
• Gene action & regulation
• Developmental biology
• Neuroscience
• Disease study
• Animal / cell models

Previous CompoZr ZFN Award Program Winner

In January 2011, Elcie Chan, PhD from Yale University, won a CompoZr ZFN Award for her work in novel genetic markers in cancer. Below, Elcie provides feedback on the use of CompoZr ZFNs in her area of research:

Please tell us about you and your research.

I'm a postdoctoral associate in the lab of Dr. Joanne Weidhaas at the Yale University School of Medicine. The lab is interested in identifying and studying novel genetic markers of cancer, and was the first to discover that an inherited single nucleotide variant in the 3'UTR of a common oncogene, KRAS (known as the KRAS-variant), represented a powerful biomarker of cancer risk (Chin et al., 2008, Ratner et al., 2010), and is also associated with clinical outcome and response to treatment (Christensen et al., 2009, Graziano et al., 2010). My research is mainly focused on identifying the mechanisms behind the KRAS-variant and its association with cancer risk, progression and treatment outcome. To this end, I have been working on generating an isogenic, non-tumorigenic, human model cell line containing the KRAS-variant as a research tool.

Where did you hear about the CompoZr ZFN Award Program and what made you decide to apply?

I first heard about the ZFN Award program from a colleague who had read about ZFN technology in an article describing novel technological innovations for research. Later, at an NYAS meeting, I also encountered flyers describing the technology and decided to check it out on your website. The application of the technology matched very well with one of the goals of my research and I was amazed by the reported efficiency. This is also where I found the information regarding the Award and brought it to the attention of my PI, upon which we decided that it would be worthwhile to submit an application.

How do you expect this CompoZr ZFN Award to benefit your research?

One of the primary goals of my research is to generate model isogenic cell lines from untransformed cells that we can use to effectively study the KRAS-variant and determine its ability to drive cellular transformation in response to a variety of tumor-initiating factors. Previously, I had been attempting to generate these KRAS-variant harboring cell lines using alternative methods, but have had limited success. It is my hope that with the ZFNs we can generate these KRAS-variant model cell lines with greater efficiency, and subsequently in many different types of cells, so that we will have a variety of models to study this inherited variant and the mechanisms that are involved in its association with cancer risk.

Are there other areas in your research that could benefit from ZFNs?

Currently my focus is on the KRAS-variant so this would be my main objective, however, the lab is working on a variety of other genes and have found other novel inherited mutations with associations to cancer risk, and we may be interested in following these up in the future with their own model cell lines.

As a ZFN Award winner, are there any other comments you'd like to share?

I'd like to thank Sigma-Aldrich for offering this award for my research and I look forward to working with the ZFNs.