A platform for massively parallel metabolite analysis in single cells

细胞是生物学的基本单位。然而，在过去，尽管我们可以用显微镜看到复杂组织中的单个细胞，但很难知道每个细胞内部是什么--每个细胞中哪些基因被打开或关闭？每个细胞是如何吸收和处理我们饮食中丰富的生物分子的？一块组织或一个器官中有多少种不同类型的细胞？在过去的5年里，随着单细胞技术给生物学带来了革命性的变化，这种情况发生了戏剧性的变化。现在，我们不必查看整个组织块(例如，大脑或肝脏)或整个肿瘤中哪些基因处于打开或关闭状态，而是现在可以查看该组织或肿瘤中每个单独细胞中哪些基因处于打开或关闭状态。这改变了我们看待癌症生物学或发育生物学的方式。然而，目前的单细胞技术只能检查RNA和DNA序列--它们无法测量每个细胞中存在的数千个小分子和代谢物。这是我们理解上的一个重大漏洞。 弗雷泽团队发明了一种新方法，使我们能够在单细胞中并行测量数百种代谢物，这种方法与目前测量基因表达的单细胞技术完全兼容。有了我们的发明，我们将能够读取单个细胞中的基因表达和代谢物水平-这将提供一种全新的方式来观察复杂组织中每个细胞的新陈代谢和药物摄取和处理。 这里的建议是为深入的市场分析提供资金。我们计划在未来1-2个月内通过申请专利来保护我们的发明，但从那时起，我们将需要与知识领袖和潜在的行业合作伙伴接触，以找到将我们的发明推向市场的最佳途径。这一市场分析将是推动这一进程的重要指南。

The cell is the fundamental unit of biology. However, in the past while we could see single cells within a complicated tissue using a microscope, it was very hard to know what was inside each individual cell - which genes were turned on or off in each cell? How was each cell taking up and processing the rich soup of biological molecules from our diet? How many different types of cell are present in a lump of tissue or in a single organ? This has changed dramatically in the last 5 years as single-cell technologies have revolutionized biology. Instead of having to look at which genes are on or off in an entire mass of tissue (e.g. 'brain' or 'liver') or in a whole tumour, we can now look at which genes are on or off in each individual cell in that tissue or tumour. This has transformed how we look at cancer biology or developmental biology. However, current single cell technologies can only examine RNA and DNA sequences - they cannot measure the many thousands of small molecules and metabolites that are present in each cell. This is a major hole in our understanding. The Fraser group has invented a new method that will allow us to measure hundreds of metabolites in parallel in single cells in a way that is completely compatible with current single cell technologies that measure gene expression. With our invention, we will be able to read both gene expression AND metabolite levels in single cells - this will provide a dramatically new way to see metabolism and drug uptake and processing in each cell of a complex tissue. The proposal here is to fund a deep market analysis. We plan to protect our invention by filing a patent in the next 1-2 months but from that point we will need to engage with knowledge leaders and potential industry partners to see the best route to take our invention to market. This market analysis will be an essential guide to drive this.