NEW YORK (GenomeWeb) – 1CellBio and the Open Medicine Institute have partnered to investigate the potential for single-cell RNA-sequencing technology in precision medicine applications.
As part of the collaboration, OMI researchers will apply and validate 1CellBio's inDrop system as part of a clinical research project.
The inDrop system merges cell sorting technology with single-cell capture technology for RNA sequencing.
Initially, the group will generate predictive data for patients with undiagnosed immune dysfunction conditions. OMI researchers will identify putative biomarkers and show how an integrated omics approach can improve the sensitivity, accuracy, and specificity of a diagnosis for a complicated immune disease.
According to 1CellBio, the study will also apply machine learning and other data-analysis techniques to identify clinically relevant patterns of gene expression in single cells, as well as relationships between single-cell expression patterns and disparate omic data types.
After the pilot project, the partners will explore a laboratory-developed assay service offered by OMI's CLIA laboratory.
"This collaboration adds another dimension to our large-scale multi-omics data integration and clinical application practice, especially for the large number of our patients with undiagnosed immune dysfunction and inflammatory conditions," OMI Founder Andreas Kogelnik said in a statement.