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Project

Single-cell omics in high throughput and at spatial resolution

A human body comprises 10 to 100 billion cells (= 10 to 100 x 1000.000.000.000 cells). As most of our organ functions are executed by the concerted action of those individual cells in a spatially organised context, it is paramount to research individual cells in their native spatial context. This is not only important to understand normal organ development and function, but also to investigate how (subpopulations of) cells are perturbed in diseased conditions as cancer or neurological disorders. This proposal will establish a fourth-generation sequencing device that preserves the spatial coordinates of RNA and DNA sequences within tissue sections with up to subcellular resolution, thus enabling localizing sequencing reads within single cells in their original histological tissue context. Apart from in situ sequencing technology, the same device will also enable the detection and visualisation of transcripts from 100s to 1000s of genes within single cells at unprecedented accuracy and with spatial inter- and intracellular information. Accessories will enable interrogating single cell DNA and RNA in high throughput and spur further method development for the analysis of single cells. Approaches for single-cell sequence analysis are revolutionizing our understanding of the extent, nature and biology of cellular diversity that occurs in the lifetime of an organism in health and disease.
 

Date:1 May 2018 →  30 Apr 2022
Keywords:spatial resolution, single-cell omics
Disciplines:Medical imaging and therapy, Other paramedical sciences, Genetics, Systems biology, Molecular and cell biology