Single‐cell omics: Overview, analysis, and application in biomedical science

Abstract

Single-cell sequencing methods provide the highest resolution insight into cellular heterogeneity. Owing to their rapid growth and decreasing cost, they are now widely accessible to scientists worldwide. Single-cell technologies enable analysis of a large number of cells, making them powerful tools to characterise rare cell types and refine our understanding of diverse cell states. Moreover, single-cell application in biomedical sciences helps to unravel mechanisms related to disease pathogenesis and outcome. In this Viewpoint, we briefly describe existing single-cell methods (genomics, transcriptomics, epigenomics, proteomics, and mulitomics), comment on available analysis tools, and give examples of method applications in the biomedical field.

Single‐cell transcriptomics in human skin research: available technologies, technical considerations and disease applications

“…By combining transcriptomics with proteomics and epigenomics, scientists can elucidate regulatory elements and transcription factors that affect gene expression, methylation, protein abundance and chromatin accessibility 84 85 or CITE‐seq, 86 which measures cell surface protein levels by using oligonucleotide‐labelled antibodies 87 …”

“…By combining transcriptomics with proteomics and epigenomics, scientists can elucidate regulatory elements and transcription factors that affect gene expression, methylation, protein abundance and chromatin accessibility. 84 The 10× platform enables the combination of scRNA-seq with other complementary technologies such as ATAC-seq, which uses a prokaryotic transposase to tag accessible regulatory regions with sequencing adaptors 85 or CITE-seq, 86 which measures cell surface protein levels by using oligonucleotide-labelled antibodies. 87 This method can be particularly useful in better characterizing cutaneous immune cell populations that participate in multiple inflammatory signalling pathways.…”

Advances in Single-Cell Printing

“…Second, compared to the popular microfluidic technologies in an isolated system, current printing strategies normally rely on printing the single-cell droplets in an open environment, which may cause interference and deviation in the subsequent analysis. Third, many subsequent analyses after single-cell isolation are performed on instruments that are incompatible with single-cell printing [2,7].…”

“…Therefore, directly exploring cellular structure and function at the single-cell level is becoming an indispensable tool to further reveal the essential secret of living systems. In the past decade, a plethora of techniques has been developed for singlecell analysis in various biomedical fields [2,3], including single-cell omics [4][5][6][7][8], single-cell biomechanical properties [9][10][11], cell-cell interactions [12][13][14], cell differentiation [15][16][17], cell subpopulation identification [18][19][20], cancer mechanisms [21][22][23], immunology [24,25], and neurology [26][27][28].…”

Advances in precise single-cell capture for analysis and biological applications

“…In order to study diseases and drug development, deep analysis of stem cell differentiation, cancer, embryonic and adult physiological functions can only be achieved by single-cell analysis; therefore, single-cell analysis provides a reliable scientic basis for the early diagnosis and treatment of major diseases, drug screening and cell-cell interactions. [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23] Herein, we review the classication of single-cell precise capture techniques, with emphasis on the latest progress in the last ve years. Each technology has benets and specic challenges, which provide opportunities for researchers in different elds.…”