DisCo: boosting the efficiency of single-cell RNA sequencing

Close-up of the microfluidics enabling deterministic co-encapsulation of single cells at outstanding efficiencies. Credit: Joern Pezoldt (EPFL). Bioengineers at EPFL have found a way to radically increase the efficiency of single-cell RNA-sequencing, a powerful tool that can -read- the genetic profile of an individual cell. Single-cell RNA sequencing, or -scRNA-seq- for short, is a technique that allows scientists to study the expression of genes in an individual cell within a mixed population - which is virtually how all cells exist in the body's tissues. Part of a larger family of -single-cell sequencing- techniques, scRNA-seq involves capturing the RNA of a single cell and, after multiple molecular conversion reactions, sequencing it. Since RNA is the intermediate step from gene (DNA) to protein, it provides an overview about which genes in that particular cell are active and which are not. Because scRNA-seq captures the activity of all genes in the cell's genome - thousands of genes at once - it has become the gold standard for defining cell states and phenotypes.