Uncover Profiles of Gene Activity from Single Cells

Applied Biosystems announced that researchers have discovered comprehensive profiles of gene activity from single cells using the SOLiD™ System, its next-generation genomic analysis platform. The finding, which is detailed in the current edition of the journal Nature Methods, represents the first use of any next-generation genomic analysis platform for a hypothesisneutral, genome-wide survey of expressed genes in individual cells. This proprietary research method has the potential to reveal details about cell fate and can potentially accelerate the discovery of biomarkers for a variety of diseases, including cancer. The high sensitivity of the SOLiD System enabled the scientists to generate 75% more, or 5,270 more expressed genes with a single cell compared to microarray techniques. The researchers identified 1,753 novel splice junctions, which have never been detected by microarray techniques at single cell resolution.

Detailed characterisations of cell behaviour provide researchers a better understanding of how cells can be used in regenerative therapies for damaged cells and organs. By profiling expression patterns of genes, researchers can obtain a more accurate view of the transcriptome by cell or tissue type, which can result in a better understanding of the nature of diseased cells, such as cancer stem cells, which play a key role in cancer
recurrence and tumour metastasis. Cancer researchers typically challenged by only being able to obtain tiny amounts of RNA from biological samples can utilise the SOLiD System to generate detailed gene expression profiles from the trace amounts of RNA present in single cell and cancer samples.