Single Cell TCR Sequencing Product Applications

Resolving cell phenotypes is a common single-cell analysis goal in immunology. However, the random rearrangement of the T cell receptor V(D)J gene region has brought about complex changes in the T cell population. This forms a huge T cell force to identify specific foreign proteins and trigger an effective immune response.

In order to achieve deep T-cell analysis at the single-cell level, Fluidigm recently introduced a new immunology application on the C1TM system – Single-CellTCRSequencing. This application can uncover the T cell receptor (TCR) alpha and beta chains of each cell, and discover the corresponding gene expression characteristics, providing a new method for researchers to examine the functional response of T cells.

This method was developed by researchers at the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL-EBI) and the Sanger Institute and was recently published in the journal NatureMethods. It reconstructs paired T cell receptor (TCR) sequences from RNA sequencing data of individual T cells, correlating T cell specificity with functional responses.

The new method combines the mature single cell whole transcriptome sequencing process on the C1 system with a bioinformatics tool called TraCeR to reconstruct T cell receptor sequences from single cell RNA sequencing data. This tool includes reference files that can be used for human and mouse sequencing data.

"Almost every T cell has a different sequence and antigen specificity. We believe that single cell TCR sequencing and TraCeR provide researchers with a tool to explore the diversity of T cell receptor sequences and to make antigen specific. Sex is associated with specific functional responses,” said Michael Stubbington, senior scientist at EMBL-EBI.

Single cell TCR sequencing is the fifteenth single cell approach implemented on the C1 system. Other methods include RNA sequencing, targeted gene expression, miRNA analysis, genome sequencing and exome sequencing, targeted gene sequencing, and epigenetic applications. Each application's operating plan, literature data, etc. can be found on ScriptHub.

“We developed the C1 system with the goal of achieving a wide range of single-cell applications to solve increasingly complex biological problems. By working with leading institutions such as EMBL-EBI and Sanger, the single-cell research community can leverage the expanding C1 application. Learn about the important health-related mechanisms,” said PeteBetzelos, senior vice president of marketing at Fluidigm. "We are looking forward to this single-cell application that will promote the understanding of immune-related diseases and contribute to the development of novel immunotherapy."