ex vivo Digital microfluidic Isolation of Single Cells for –Omics

Description:
Digital microfluidic Isolation of Single Cells for -Omics (DISCO) is a platform that allows users to select cells of interest from adherent cell cultures and connects single-cell sequencing data to their immunofluorescence-based phenotypes. Here, we introduce an advanced version of this technique, called ex vivo DISCO (evDISCO). In evDISCO, tissue slices are mounted on DISCO devices to allow the user to select single cells as a function of their ex vivo phenotype for transcriptome or proteome sequencing. As an initial application, we have applied evDISCO to probe the effects of proximity to injury for cortical astrocytes in a mouse stroke model. Proximity-related differences were observed in lipid shuttling, with enriched expression of Apoe and Fabp5 found in proximal astrocytes. The data represent a new resource for understanding the roles of astrocytes in stroke, and showcase the utility of evDISCO for hypothesis-driven, spatially resolved single-cell sequencing.

Speaker: Aaron Wheeler - University of Toronto