MilliporeSigma is the life science business of Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany in the US and Canada. In the rest of world, its brand remains Merck KGaA. Merck KGaA is one of largest reagent and pharmaceutical companies in the world and it is a major supplier of research antibodies. It is formed through the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich by Merck KGaA in 2015.

Figure 1. MilliporeSigma.

Labome organizes over 1652931 million reagents from 295 high-quality suppliers. As of August 8, 2023, the products include antibodies against 18836 human genes, 14155 mouse genes, and 12210 rat genes, ELISA and assay kits for 7491 human genes, 1725 mouse genes, protein and peptide products for 15451 human genes and 2134 mouse genes, cDNA clones, microRNA clones for 19527 human genes and 16862 mouse genes, gene knockdown reagents (siRNA and shRNA constructs) for 19425 human genes and 18624 mouse genes, and inhibitors against or activators for or substrates for 1393 human genes. You can search all those reagents using the search box above.

MilliporeSigma is formed through the acquisition of Sigma-Aldrich by Merck KGaA in 2015. As of October 17, 2021, its website indicated about 20,000 employees worldwide with greater than 300,000 products, and used SigmaAldrich.com as its e-commerce platform.

EMD Millipore / Merck Millipore, was the life science division of Merck KGaA. In North America, the Merck & Co., a separate company, owns the trademark Merck, thus Merck KGaA in the US used the umbrella brand EMD Millipore; in all other parts of the world, it was called Merck KGaA. It was a leading provider of tools and technology to the life sciences. EMD stands for "Emanuel Merck, Darmstadt", an earlier name of the Merck KGaA.

EMD/Merck traces its root to the year 1668. Millipore began as The Millipore Filter Company in 1954. Throughout the years Millipore acquired several companies, including MicroSafe, NovAseptic, Newport Bio Systems, Guava Technologies, and BioAnaLab. In 2006, its acquisition of Serologicals Corporation (which included Chemicon, Upstate, Linco, and Celliance) enabled Millipore to move into the drug discovery markets. In 2010, Millipore was acquired by Merck KGaA, becoming EMD Millipore in North America. In 2012, Merck Millipore acquired Biochrom and CellASIC.

The company Sigma-Aldrich was formed through the merger of Sigma Chemical Company and Aldrich Chemical Company in 1975. Sigma Chemical Company rooted from 1934 in St Louis, Missouri and Aldrich Chemical Company was founded in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1951. In addition, Sigma-Aldrich distributes research reagents from Roche.

As of October 2021, the products from both EMD Millipore and Sigma-Aldrich are available through their separate websites, and company contacts remain separate. The company's e-commerce platform, sigmaaldrich.com, lists more than 300,000 products ranging from lab water systems to genome-editing tools, antibodies and cell lines, as well as end-to-end bioprocessing systems to support the manufacturing needs of both emerging biotech and large pharma companies.

Labome manually reviews formal publications for information about antibody applications and about applications of other reagents and instruments. Sigma-Aldrich antibodies and EMD Millipore antibodies are discussed separately below.

Table 1 lists the commonly cited Sigma antibodies in Labome's VAD (Validated Antibody Database). Its popular antibodies include anti-actin like A5316 [56], anti-tubulin (for example, T5168 [57] ), and anti-vinculin antibodies, commonly used as loading controls in Western blot, and anti-FLAG antibody, for example, F1804 [58, 59], used for detecting FLAG tag in protein expression.

As examples, C Weber et al used immunohistochemical labelling of Sigma anti- Sox9 antibody in turtule gonads as a male pathway marker [60]. Lee YR et al blotted lysates from PC3 cell, DU145 cells, and MEFs with Sigma-Aldrich anti-actin A3853 antibody to serve as a loading control [61].

Antibodies from EMD Millipore, and its subsidiaries Upstate and Chemicon, have been used for a variety of experiments. Here are some examples of their use from the literature. Virk HS et al evaluated two lesser used monoclonals and three commonly cited polyclonals against TRPA1 and found that MilliporeSigma ST1685 was specific in Western blot [62]. Duncan A et al located TCF7L2 expression in cholinergic and non-cholinergic cells in mouse medial habenula region using mouse monoclonal anti-TCF7L2 clone 6H5-3 from MilliporeSigma [63].

One of the most famous brands from EMD Millipore among the reagents commonly used by biomedical researchers is Calbiochem. Some most recent application samples include latrunculin A [64] and ionomycin [65]. Also Roche reagents are available from MilliporeSigma, including some of the most commonly reagents like protease inhibitor cocktails and antibodies.