a breakthrough in the study of individual cells
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To understand the complex machinery that makes our cells work, it is often necessary to kill them to dissect their contents. Two Swiss teams from the Swiss Federal Institutes of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) and Lausanne (EPFL) have developed an innovative analysis method, Live-seq, which leaves cells unscathed and thus opens new doors for scientists. The details of this method were published on August 17 in the Nature magazine.
This adds to a range of techniques which, for a little over a decade, have revolutionized research in biology: single cell analysis methods. These techniques have gained momentum with the development of microfluidic systems that isolate cells from each other and allow them to be analyzed separately. Major differences have thus been observed with cells previously studied in populations and whose grouped analysis only provided average values that were not representative of biological diversity.
Time tracking
As part of Julia Vorholt’s team in Zurich, Orane Guillaume-Gentil has been working for ten years on a system of miniature pipettes, the FluidFM, whose ultrafine needles (a few hundred nanometers in diameter) are particularly suitable for studies on cells unique. Thanks to this system, she explains that she was able to “to collect a significant fraction, between 10% and 70%, of the cell” – more precisely of its cytoplasm, that is to say its internal environment, outside the nucleus containing the genome. “And it was a surprise to find that the cell wouldn’t die of it. » Moreover, after sampling, it regains its initial volume in a few hours without showing, to date, any major disruption of its activity.
The Swiss team focused on the analysis of RNA molecules, the production of which reflects the genetic activity of the cell
In these samples, veritable soups of biological molecules of all kinds, the Swiss team focused on the analysis of RNA molecules, the production of which reflects the genetic activity of the cell. By analyzing the contents of a cell without killing or disturbing it, this new technique offers researchers the possibility of carrying out a temporal follow-up of the expression of genes and the transformations which result from it.
At the Institut Curie in Paris, the system is already being installed. A decision taken after the preprint, a year ago, of these results on the bioRxiv platform. Céline Vallot, cancer research director at the Institute and co-coordinator of the platform dedicated to single cell studies that will manage the device, does not hide her enthusiasm: “This capacity for the non-destruction of single cells is revolutionary, it is a paradigm shift. Until now, temporality was modeled by making measurement points on different cells at different times. Now we will be able to say precisely how each individual has evolved over time. »
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