CELLULAR RESEARCH, INC. — Department of Health and Human Services SBIR Phase II: 172

Description

DESCRIPTION provided by applicant A kit for massively parallel single cell gene expression analysis Abstract Interest in single cell gene expression analysis harnessing the capability of next generation sequencing NGS has recently gained momentum in the academic community Although sequencing has become cheaper the ability to measure gene expression profile at the single cell level is extremely constrained by the limitation of technolog for preparing sequencing libraries from single cells Currently available sample preparation techniques require expensive instruments and are brute force and low throughput Single cell gene expression would be much more powerful if it can be scaled to examine tens of thousands of cells at a time and across many genes Not only will such technology advance our knowledge in basic biology and medicine it also has many potential clinical applications We have recently developed a low cost and high resolution massively parallel method to prepare sequencing libraries from large number of single cells for gene expression analysis The method is based on the concept of stochastic labeling executed at the single cell and the single molecule level We have successfully conducted expression analysis of genes of close to single cells per sample routinely and have demonstrated the ability of our system to classify major cell types in heterogeneous cell mixtures such as human blood The scalability throughput and economy of our technology far exceed existing commercial platforms For this proposed Phase II project we plan to further scale our technology to enable routine analysis of hundreds of genes across cells per sample and to convert the current working prototype into an exportable product that includes a reagent kit a simple reagent loading device and supporting assay design and analysis software PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE A kit for massively parallel single cell gene expression analysis Narrative We aim to develop a commercial kit that enables low cost routine sequencing based digital gene expression measurement of or more individual cells in a biological sample Our technology would widen the adoption of large scale single cell analysis by researchers enabling researchers to gain better understanding of complex biological systems and their relationships to health and diseases It also has a number of potential clinical applications especially in situations when identification of rare cells is crucial Examples inclue early cancer detection monitoring of cancer therapy and evaluating responses to drugs and vaccines