A new UK facility will use microscopic needles to extract material from individual living cells, or even from specific compartments inside them. This matters because standard biological analysis grinds up thousands of cells together, losing all information about which cell did what and where molecules were located. SEISMIC—Spatially rEsolved sIngle and Sub-cellular oMICs—solves that by letting researchers sample a single cell under a microscope, then analyse its contents with techniques such as mass spectrometry. This reveals how cells communicate, how they become cancerous, how pathogens cause disease, and how cells age. If successful, the facility will give UK scientists an unprecedented view of cellular behaviour at the nanoscale. That deeper understanding could eventually inform new therapeutic interventions for diseases ranging from cancer to metabolic disorders. The facility is free to BBSRC users for the first 36 months, with travel grants for hands-on access at the University of Surrey. It is the first of its kind in the UK and is primarily a fundamental science resource—it does not promise immediate practical applications, but similar investments in single-cell technologies have previously transformed drug development and diagnostics.
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An exciting innovation in the analysis of a biological system is sampling on a very small nanoscale using a specialised needle (nano capillary sampling). Cells are located under a specialised (confocal) microscope and cells or even small parts of cells can be sampled. This uniquely provides spatial information and can be performed on living cells which will allow scientists to understand important biological phenomenon such as how cells communicate with each other and how cells become cancerous. Our resource which we have called SEISMIC will provide an automated platform based on nano capillary sampling. We will work with users within the UK research community to extract single cells and their sub- cellular compartments under a microscope. The extracted cellular materials can be analysed using a variety of approaches such as mass spectrometry which separates molecules by mass and charge to profile for example drugs, metabolites and lipids or apply other techniques to profile nucleic acids. This will allow an unprecedented view of cells and can be applied to a plethora of biological questions which inform us on for example the rules of life or how pathogens cause disease or how cells age, information which can be harnessed to develop new therapeutic interventions which will ultimately benefit society. The SEISMIC resource will be available free of charge to BBSRC users for the first 36 months, either with or without downstream mass spectrometry analysis. Users will be able to perform their experiments using the facilities at Surrey, and hands on access to SEISMIC will be supported through travel grants. This facility will be the first of its kind in the UK and therefore will play a role in maintaining world leading science in the UK.
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