Fellows seminar - TranslatOmiX: bead-free DNA barcoding technology to study single cells

Image by Darwin Laganzon from Pixabay

Par Michael Ryckelynck (2018 Fellow) and Roger Cubi (USIAS post-doc)

Since the first single cell transcriptome analysis was reported in 2009, single cell technologies are increasingly attracting the interest of the research community. These technologies provide a finer understanding of complex cell structures, and reveal their heterogenicity through the identification of rare cells. Indeed, this heterogeneity is masked in measurements that represent the average of thousands of cells. Most of the current droplet-based single-cell approaches use tagged beads to capture the targeted cell component. The use of beads implies that large droplet volumes are needed to accommodate them, and they should ideally be present in the droplet from the beginning of the process. Furthermore, at the end of the process, the targeted molecule should be released from the bead surface.

In the present work, in the frame of the TranslatOmiX project, we introduce the FlexiOmics technology, a microfluidic pipeline implementing a versatile bead-free barcoding system. This new droplet barcoding technology is applied in a small volume (60-150pL) and at high occupancy, overcoming the low occupancy of other droplet-based technologies. Our first implementation of this new technology will be the study of the transcriptome of single cells, which will later on be adapted to characterize their translatome.

• More information on Michael Ryckelynck, Roger Cubi and the USIAS project - TranslatOmiX: massively-parallel characterization of the entire protein synthesis with single-cell resolution.