chemistry

Sigma-Aldrich

Sigma-Aldrich is a chemistry topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sigma-Aldrich rather than just read about it. In short: Sigma-Aldrich (part of MilliporeSigma) is a brand operating within an American chemical, life science, and biotechnology company owned by the multinational chemical conglomerate Merck Group. The life sciences business of Merck Group operates as MilliporeSigma in the United States.

Key takeaways

Sigma-Aldrich belongs to chemistry; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sigma-Aldrich to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sigma-Aldrich from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sigma-Aldrich (part of MilliporeSigma) is a brand operating within an American chemical, life science, and biotechnology company owned by the multinational chemical conglomerate Merck Group. The life sciences business of Merck Group operates as MilliporeSigma in the United States. Sigma-Aldrich was created in 1975 by the merger of Sigma Chemical Company and Aldrich Chemical Company. It grew through various acquisitions until it had over 9,600 employees and was listed on the Fortune 1000. The company has two United States headquarters, in St. Louis and Burlington, MA and has operations in approximately 40 countries. In 2015, the multinational chemical conglomerate Merck Group acquired Sigma-Aldrich for $17 billion. The company is currently a part of Merck's life science business and in combination with Merck's earlier acquired Millipore, operates as MilliporeSigma. It is headquartered in Burlington, Massachusetts, United States.

History Sigma Chemical Company of St. Louis and Aldrich Chemical Company of Milwaukee were both American specialty chemical companies when they merged in August 1975. The company grew throughout the 1980s and 1990s, with significant expansion in facilities, acquisitions and diversification into new market sectors.

Early history 1935 – Midwest Consultants was founded in St Louis by brothers Aaron Fischer and Bernard Fischlowitz, who hired chemical engineer Daniel Broida. 1946 – Sigma was formed from Midwest Consultants and manufactured just adenosine triphosphate. They were the first to manufacture pure ATP. 1972 – Sigma's IPO 1951 – Aldrich founded in Milwaukee by Alfred Bader and Jack Eisendrath and manufactured just 1-methyl-3-nitro-1-nitrosoguanidine. 1966 – Aldrich's IPO 1972 – Subsidiary Aldrich-Boranes launched to manufacture hydroboration products 1975 – Merger of Sigma Chemical and Aldrich Chemical to created Sigma-Aldrich. Their first year earned $43 million in sales. 1999 – Sigma-Aldrich reaches $1 billion in sales 2005 – Announced membership in The RNAi Consortium 2014 – Merck KGaA announced that it would purchase Sigma-Aldrich for approx. $17 billion (€13.1 billion). November 3, 2014 – Sigma-Aldrich filed a definitive proxy statement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to hold a special investors meeting regarding approval for the sale to Merck KGaA.

Acquisitions

1970s 1978 – Makor Chemicals

1980s 1984 – Pathfinder 1986 – Bio Yeda, Bristol Organics 1989 – Fluka Chemie AG (Swiss company founded in the 1950s) purchased for $39 million.

1990s 1993 – Supelco, Inc. acquired to enter the chromatography market 1994 – LabKemi AB 1997 – Research Biochemicals International, Riedel-de-Haen, Techcares Systems, Carbolabs, YA Kemia 1998 – Genosys

2000s 2000 – First Medical Inc., Amelung GmbH, ARK Scientific 2001 – ISOTEC (produces stable isotopes used in basic research and medical diagnostics) 2004 – Ultrafine (a supplier of contract manufacturing services for drug development), Tetrionics (a producer of high potency and cytotoxic active pharmaceutical ingredients) 2005 – JRH Biosciences, an industrial supplier of cell culture products for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries; Proligo Group, a global supplier of genomics research tools 2006 – Beijing Superior Chemicals, Iropharm, Pharmorphix, Advanced Separation Technologies (manufacturer of products for chiral chromatography) 2007 – Epichem acquired to expand capabilities in materials sciences and semiconductor markets; Molecular Medicine BioServices acquired to provide large-scale viral manufacturing capabilities; announced alliance with Sangamo BioSciences to develop zinc finger-based laboratory research reagents 2009 – ChemNavigator 2010 – Cerilliant Corporation, ACE Animals 2011 – Resource Technology Corp, Vetec Quimica Fina 2012 – Research Organics Inc., BioReliance (a toxicology and veterinary diagnostics company); BioReliance had previously been acquired by Invitrogen and subsequently sold to Avista Capital Partners. 2014 – Cell Marque 2015 – Combined with EMD Millipore to make MilliporeSigma.

Key numbers Key numbers for Sigma-Aldrich. Revenues:

$2.79 billion (2014) Products:

100,000 chemical products (46,000 manufactured) 30,000 laboratory equipment products Customers:

Approximately one million individual customers worldwide 88,000 accounts Geographies (% of 2008 sales):

United States 35% Europe 43% Canada, Asia Pacific, Latin America 22%

Subsidiaries

Aldrich is a supplier in the research and fine chemicals market. Aldrich provides organic and inorganic chemicals, building blocks, reagents, advanced materials and stable isotopes for chemical synthesis, medicinal chemistry and materials science. Aldrich's chemicals catalog, the "Aldrich Catalog and Handbook" is often used as a handbook due to the inclusion of structures, physical data, and literature references.

Sigma is the Sigma-Aldrich's main biochemical supplier, with offerings including antibiotics, buffers, carbohydrates, enzymes, forensic tools, hematology and histology, nucleotides, proteins, peptides, amino acids and their derivatives.

Sigma RBI produces specialized products for use in the field of cell signaling and neuroscience. Their offerings range from standard biochemical reagents to specialized research tools, including ligands for receptors and ion channels, enzyme inhibitors, phosphospecific antibodies, key signal transduction enzymes, and assay kits for cell signaling.

ISOTEC provides isotopically labeled products for protein structure determination, peptide synthesis, proteomics, metabolic research, magnetic resonance imaging, nuclear magnetic resonance, breath test substrates, agriculture, as well as gas and gas mixes.

Riedel-de Haën was incorporated with Sigma-Aldrich in 1999 and manufactures reagents and standards.

Supelco is the chromatography products branch of Sigma-Aldrich. It provides chromatography columns and related tools for environmental, government, food and beverage, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical and chemical laboratories; sample preparation products and chemical reference standards.

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sigma-Aldrich

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sigma-Aldrich claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In chemistry, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sigma-Aldrich before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sigma-Aldrich ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sigma-Aldrich

In research: Sigma-Aldrich appears in chemistry research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sigma-Aldrich in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sigma-Aldrich is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2015 mergers and acquisitions, American subsidiaries of foreign companies, Biotechnology companies established in 1975, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sigma-Aldrich outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sigma-Aldrich in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sigma-Aldrich means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sigma-Aldrich out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sigma-Aldrich in simple terms?

Why does Sigma-Aldrich matter?

Because it connects several chemistry ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sigma-Aldrich?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sigma-Aldrich.