IsoSpark single cell proteomic and transcriptomic system for Keck Microarray Shared Resource (KMSR) - Project Summary/Abstract
Keck Microarray Shared Resource (KMSR) has been providing cutting-edge next-generation genomics
technologies to support the fundamental research needs of hundreds of Yale and non-Yale NIH-funded
investigators. Most recently, with the advances in single-cell isolation and barcoding technologies, the field of
single cell genomics/proteomics and multiomics has started offering unprecedented opportunities to profile DNA,
mRNA, and proteins at a single-cell resolution. Since 2016, KMSR has been successfully providing a variety of
single cell services, most of them using 10x genomics technology and focusing on Single-cell RNA sequencing
(scRNA-seq), which has been used to gain insights into cell types and states. However, this technique only
provided one facet with low correlation to true cellular function. New analysis methods that combine scRNA-seq
with proteomic profiling has been in active development. This would further reveal unique insights and give a
better understanding of single-cell function.
The requested IsoSpark system is a unique single-cell platform enables highly multiplexed proteomic and
transcriptomic analysis. With the newly developed Duomic chip, IsoSpark is becoming the first platform
integrating single-cell functional proteomics with transcriptomics, providing unprecedented insights into the
relation between transcriptomics and proteomics.
Twenty-seven investigators from 4 institutions support our request for funding of IsoSpark system, with apt
justifications. They propose to use the requested system to study novel viral based immune-gene therapy,
immune dysregulation in COVID-19, Parkinson’s disease, Tumor Microenvironment, autoimmune diabetes,
Cerebellar Neurodegeneration, aging, glioma, pancreatic cancer, and Immune Dysregulation during Transition
from Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) to chronic kidney disease (CKD).
Moreover, the requested equipment is easy to use and cost-effective and has sufficient throughput to support
the projects cited in this application and beyond. The strengths of this proposal include; (1) an efficient and
effective centralized facility serving an extremely diverse and productive investigator user base; (2) the extensive
experience of the PI (3) the demonstrated ability of KMSR to effectively integrate cutting edge data production
and analysis for the benefit of hundreds of Yale and non-Yale researchers, and (4) the extensive infrastructure
and expertise that is available to bring the requested instrumentation on-line and to oversee its continuous use.
Yale University has made a major investment in capital and institutional talent to build the world-class genomic
center that has proven highly successful. The requested instrumentation will leverage the infrastructure to ensure
its high value and broad impact on NIH-funded biomedical and basic research within and beyond the Yale
community.