Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, a life science and high technology company, develops, manufactures, purchases, and distributes various chemicals, biochemicals, and equipment products worldwide. It offers products in the areas of analytical chemistry, cell culture and analysis, chemistry and biochemicals, clinical and diagnostics, filtration, industrial microbiology, labware, materials science, molecular biology and functional genomics, mRNA development and manufacturing, pharma and biopharma manufacturing, protein biology, and water purification. It offers media and critical raw materials for industrial cell culture, contract manufacturing services, pharmaceutical safety testing services, and organometallic precursors for semiconductor manufacturing. The company also manufactures meglumine, an amino sugar derived from glucose and a component of medical imaging contrast media. It sells its products to pharmaceutical companies, universities, commercial laboratories, industrial companies, biotechnology companies, non-profit organizations, governmental institutions, diagnostic, chemical and electronics companies, and hospitals. The company was founded in 1951 and is based in Burlington, Massachusetts with additional offices worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich Corporation operates as a subsidiary of Merck KGaA.