Single Cell Technology

Dear Colleagues,

The cell is the most fundamental building block in our body and it is presently a great challenge in cell biology to understand cell-to-cell responses, and how an individual cell delivers its information to others. The average ensemble measurement of cells cannot provide information regarding the detailed behaviors of any individual cell; however, each cell in heterogeneous populations has its own unique behavior and it has different responses, even after treatment with the same reagents or drugs as other cells. On the other hand, single cell sequencing (SCS) is able to empirically infer driver mutations and to map sequential mutation events during cancer development. The integration of single-cell genomics and transcriptomics is able to provide functional consequences of mutations and the copy number variations of cells. Thus, single cell technology (SCT) has the power to understand fundamental cell biology in embryonic development, detailed knowledge of cell lineage trees in higher organisms, to dissect tumor heterogeneity and disease, etc. Recently, the development of micro/nanofluidic technologies have enabled the characterization of a single cell in the micro/nanoscale environments with a massively parallel platform, which can distinguish cell-to-cell heterogeneity via tracking responses over time. The devices are, not only useful for cell manipulation, isolation, separation, and analysis, but are also able to control cellular parameters at the single cell level.

This Special Issue will invite the latest research articles and reviews dealing with SCT, and the role of SCT in omics. Applications and future prospects, with their advantages and limitations, are also welcome.

Dr. Tuhin Subhra Santra
Prof. Dr. Fan-Gang Tseng
Guest Editors

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