New Technique For Cheaper, More Efficient Single Cell Sequencing, Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Study Reveals

Single-cell sequencing has shown a lot of promise in identifying genetic differences between cells in a given tissue sample. It is particularly useful for understanding heterogeneity and evolution in resected tumors, and is increasingly used for improving precision medicine approaches. Unfortunately, conventional methods are cost-prohibitive, thus they restrict the cell numbers that can be assessed and are therefore not widely used. A new technique, dubbed SCI-seq (single-cell combinatorial indexed sequencing), developed at the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) was used to generate libraries for samples much larger than possible with previous technologies (by about two orders of magnitude), and at a fraction of the price.