Multi-omic single-cell profiling of glioma reveals tumor cell "spies" disguised as normal astrocytes

Prof. Angela WU's research group has invented a new versatile single-cell multi-omic profiling technology named scONE-seq that is easy to use and compatible with the analysis of frozen tissue samples. This novel technology enables sequencing of both the genomic DNA and the RNA of the same cell, which is particularly important for studying cancer and relating the DNA-level changes in tumor cells with their corresponding RNA-level activity changes. 
 
In the study, we demonstrate that scONE-seq can discover hidden heterogeneity in gliomas, identifying a small tumor cell subpopulation that resembles normal astrocytes of the brain. This rare tumor population is not discoverable using single-cell RNA-seq only, and can only be found using our new multi-omic approach. The scONE-seq approach represents a new path to discovering drug targets, by identifying rare tumor cells which might be missed by previous approaches and result in failure to respond to therapy.
 
“We plan to continue our work, using scONE-seq to profile a larger patient cohort, and hope to have more clinically translational outcomes in the future.” said Prof. Angela WU. 
 
The study is now published in Science Advances, and was led by Prof. Angela WU and Dr. Lei YU in her research group, with collaborations from Prof. Jiguang WANG and his team, as well as clinician scientists Dr. Danny CHAN, Dr. Aden CHEN, Dr. Ho Keung NG, and Dr. Wai Sang POON at The Chinese University of Hong Kong/Prince of Wales Hospital.