Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and New Jersey Institute of Technology developed new software that integrates a variety of information from a single cell, allowing researchers to see how one change in a cell can lead to several others and providing important clues for pinpointing the exact causes of genetic-based diseases. The findings were published by Nature Communications.

Single-cell sequencing allows researchers to look at specific aspects of a cell to determine how it interacts with its microenvironment. This is particularly relevant in cancer research since it can be used to determine the effects of a mutation that may only affect a small portion of cells. At the single-cell level, researchers can study gene expression as well as messenger RNA, proteins and even organelles within the cells in much greater detail and resolution than before. To read the full story.