Scientific publisher Nature Publishing Group has selected single-cell sequencing as its Method of the Year for 2013 (www.nature.com/nmeth/index.html). The publication, in explaining its choice, noted that "methods to sequence the DNA and RNA of single cells are poised to transform many areas of biology and medicine."
Fluidigm, an industry-leader in single-cell genomics, has pioneered products capable of elucidating the benefits of understanding biology at the level of the individual cell. Today, most sequencing is performed on tissue samples, a genomic stew of cell populations in which biological differences between cells at the molecular level are hidden by averaging the signal of all the cells into one averaged value.
According to Nature, "Single-cell methods offer a way to dissect this heterogeneity. Single-cell DNA sequencing can reveal mutations and structural changes in the genomes of cancer cells, which tend to have high mutation rates. This information can be used to describe the clonal structure and to trace the evolution and spread of the disease. These approaches are also revealing a surprising level of mosaicism in somatic tissues such as the brain, the functional consequences of which will need to be elucidated in the coming years."
Single-cell sequencing is enabling researchers to define new molecular profiles for sub-populations. Researchers are also able to monitor these molecular changes as cells are activated, observe cells develop, and track how cells respond to environmental stimuli.
