Studying full length mRNAs at single-cell resolution

单细胞方法正在彻底改变生物学。例如，《科学》杂志将这些方法在发育生物学中的应用列为2018年的突破。未来十年，单细胞分析方法的开发和应用将呈指数级增长到生物科学的所有领域，这将产生变革性影响。我们的项目将有助于实现单细胞革命的一个重要方面。开发一种以单细胞分辨率分析全长mRNA的方法是单细胞领域的迫切需求。我们将开发的方法将允许在单细胞中研究选择性剪接，RNA编辑和选择性聚腺苷酸化的过程，揭示它们在细胞分化，发育和疾病过程中的动态。用单细胞分辨率研究这些对于重建它们的动力学和确定它们的重要性是很重要的。这将影响干细胞生物学、发育生物学和再生医学领域，也将影响更广泛的从事基础生物过程和疾病模型研究的生物科学研究人员。此外，该项目将允许将ONT长读段测序技术应用于最先进的单细胞转录组学方法。ONT是这类测序的世界领导者，在过去几年中发展非常迅速。因此，我们的项目将有助于在生物科学中实施长读段测序技术。重要的是，这种方法的开发还可以导致生物技术应用，并进一步优化开发使用ONT签名测序平台的单细胞转录组学商业解决方案。博士生在这个过程结束时，将接受使用该技术和单细胞转录组学的所有培训，因此将处于进一步开发这项技术的理想位置。

Single-cell methods are revolutionising biology. For instance, the journal Science distinguished the application of these methods to developmental biology as the Breakthrough of the Year 2018. The next decade will see an exponential increase in the development and the application of single-cell analysis methods to all areas of the bioscience, which will have transformative effects. Our project will contribute to implement an important aspect of the single cell revolution.The development of a method that profiles full-length mRNAs at single-cell resolution is an urgent need for the single-cell field. The methods that we will develop will allow the study of processes of alternative splicing, RNA editing and alternative polyadenylation in single cells, revealing their dynamics in processes of cell differentiation, development and disease. Studying these with single-cell resolution is important to reconstruct their dynamics and establish their importance. This will impact the fields of stem cell biology, developmental biology and regenerative medicine, but also a broader community of biosciences researchers working in basic biological processes and models of disease.Furthermore, this project will allow applying ONT long read sequencing technology to a state-of-the-art single-cell transcriptomic approach. ONT is a world leader in this type of sequencing, which is growing very fast in the last few years. Our project therefore will help implementing long read sequencing technologies in the biosciences.Importantly, the development of such a method can also lead to biotechnological applications, and to further optimisation to develop commercial solutions to single-cell transcriptomics using ONT signature sequencing platform. The PhD student, at the end of the process, will have all the training in using the technology and single-cell transcriptomics and will therefore be in an ideal position for further developing this technology.