Single Cell Encapsulation for Autoimmune Disease Research Using Dolomite’s Single Cell RNA-Seq System

Dolomite Bio’s Single Cell RNA-Seq System is helping researchers at the University of Helsinki to investigate autoimmune diseases. Focusing on gastrointestinal conditions, such as coeliac disease and inflammatory bowel disease, the Molecular Genetics of Immunological Diseases group is using the system to study T-cell activation and response at the single cell level.

Dr Päivi Saavalainen, Principal Investigator, explained, “We are primarily interested in the genetics and immunopathogenesis of these diseases, and the ability to study the molecular biology of individual lymphocytes is an important part of our work. I became interested in microfluidics for single cell encapsulation around a year ago, following the publication of the Macosko paper¹. At the time, there was no bespoke system for performing the Drop-Seq method, but by the time I had secured funding Dolomite Bio was offering the purpose-made Single Cell RNA-Seq System.”

“I’m not an expert in microfluidics, so being able to purchase a complete package, without needing to select my own chip design, pumps and tubing configuration, made the choice very easy. We have had the system since May, and I’m pleased with the throughput it offers. There was a bit of a learning curve, as we were not familiar with microfluidics technology, but we can now produce a few thousand individually encapsulated and barcoded cells in a single 15-minute run. Another nice feature of the Dolomite Bio system is that it’s quite flexible. This allows you to develop your own protocols, and we have been able to optimize the chemistry and our libraries to perfectly match our downstream processes.”

¹ Macosko E et al. (2015). Highly parallel genome-wide expression profiling of individual cells using nanoliter droplets. Cell 161(5), 1202-14.