10x Genomics, a life sciences provider in mastering biology to advance human health, announced the commercial availability of two products designed to improve sample preparation workflow and broaden the adoption of the company’s Chromium platform for single cell analysis: Fixed RNA Profiling and Nuclei Isolation Kits.
These kits are aimed at enabling easier single cell multiomic analysis of fragile human tissue samples and make frozen sample analysis.
“Single cell analysis is revolutionizing biomedical research and transforming the future of health and medicine,” says Ben Hindson, co-founder and chief scientific officer for 10x Genomics. “We believe the new capabilities we’re announcing today will bring the future forward and help realize the expanding potential of single cell analysis by removing obstacles to larger scale, multi-site studies and enabling broader adoption of single cell methods in translational research.”
Fixed RNA Profiling Kit
Currently, single cell researchers must intricately plan and coordinate their experiments so as to maintain cell viability of live samples, working quickly from sample collection through to processing.
“A key limiting factor of RNA sequencing is the availability of resources at the time of collection, which can occur outside normal working hours due to various reasons,” says Luciano Martelotto, PhD, associate professor, Single Cell and Spatial Technologies Lab at the University of Adelaide. “The Fixed RNA Profiling kit allows fixation of cells immediately after single cell suspension preparation, making it possible to store cells for future experiments without relying on cryopreservation, which can distort the cell composition of the original sample.”
The Fixed RNA Profiling Kit enables researchers to fix their tissue at the time of collection, store it, and proceed to a single cell workflow at a time and place of their choosing. The kit, which combines entirely new chemistry and chip with a formaldehyde fixation to preserve the biological state at the point of collection, enables batching of samples for maximum study flexibility. In addition, the kit provides improved sensitivity and more efficient sequencing as well as built-in sample multiplexing capabilities. With the ability to probe cell surface protein expression for multiomic studies, the Fixed RNA Profiling Kit is compatible with any human single cell suspension.
“Single cell measurements have been transformative to our understanding of human health and disease, but the research potential has been hampered by cost,” says Peter Skene, PhD, Director of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry at the Allen Institute for Immunology. “New multiplexed technologies promise to significantly reduce the cost and boost global research. By locking the cell state, fixed cell measurements will allow unprecedented insight into drug mechanisms, including intracellular protein measurements. Taken together, the new era of single cell research will be a paradigm shift phase in translational research.”
Nuclei Isolation Kit
For researchers with unsequenced archival tissue, 10x Genomics developed the Nuclei Isolation Kit to unlock frozen tissues for single cell analysis, answering a major customer request.
Standard methods for nuclei isolation from frozen tissue include complex, low-throughput and time-consuming protocols, expensive instruments for sorting and debris removal, and the need to optimize workflows for each tissue. The Nuclei Isolation Kit is a simple, scalable product designed to remove those barriers. With an hour of time and a benchtop centrifuge, the kit enables the generation of high quality nuclei suspensions from a wide range of frozen samples on Chromium, without any expensive instruments or complicated pipetting.
The Fixed RNA Profiling Kit is available now for pre-order, while the Nuclei Isolation Kit is expected to open for pre-order soon. Both kits are expected to begin shipping in mid-May.
