A pioneering collaboration between Cytosurge AG and Lexogen is set to enhance the field of live-cell sequencing, enabling scientists to study living cells in unprecedented detail. The partnership combines Cytosurge’s FluidFM® OMNIUM platform with Lexogen’s LUTHOR HD kit, providing researchers with a seamless workflow for live-cell transcriptomics studies.
Live-cell sequencing, or Live-seq, is a transformative technology developed by researchers at ETH Zurich and EPFL in Switzerland. It allows for the sequencing of a cell’s RNA while preserving its viability, a significant departure from traditional methods that destroy the cell during sampling. The new approach is expected to open up new avenues for studying how gene expression evolves over time in living cells.
Cytosurge’s FluidFM® technology gently extracts cytoplasmic biopsies from cells without harming them, providing researchers with a minimally invasive method of sampling. These biopsies contain extremely low quantities of RNA – typically less than 1 picogram – which presents significant challenges for analysis. This is where Lexogen’s LUTHOR HD kit comes into play. LUTHOR HD is designed to prepare RNA sequencing libraries from minute amounts of RNA, detecting thousands of genes from as little as 0.15 picograms of material.
The integration of these two technologies offers a scalable, user-friendly solution for Live-seq, allowing researchers to track gene expression changes in living cells over time without disrupting their natural processes. This breakthrough could have significant implications for areas such as cancer research, where subtle shifts in cellular behaviour can have profound consequences.
Pascal Behr, CEO of Cytosurge, believes the partnership with Lexogen is a crucial step in advancing single-cell analysis. “The combination of our FluidFM® technology with Lexogen’s ultra-sensitive library preparation kit provides a comprehensive, end-to-end solution for Live-seq. This partnership opens up new possibilities for transcriptomics research,” he said.
Filippo Passardi, Product Manager at Lexogen, highlighted the potential impact of the collaboration on cancer research and other fields. “This partnership enables researchers to observe how individual cells change over time, which is especially important in areas like cancer, where small changes in cell populations can lead to major developments,” he said.
The collaboration has already yielded promising results. Cytosurge and Lexogen have successfully demonstrated the generation of high-quality transcriptome data using the LUTHOR HD kit on biopsies collected with the FluidFM® OMNIUM platform. The next phase of the partnership will focus on expanding the Live-seq workflow to analyse additional cell types and track gene expression at multiple time points.
Both companies are committed to making this technology accessible to a broader range of laboratories, aiming to offer an affordable and scalable solution for live-cell sequencing worldwide. This breakthrough is expected to push the boundaries of transcriptomics research, with the potential to influence developments in cellular biology and therapeutic innovations. For more information, visit Cytosurge’s and Lexogen’s websites.
