Current technologies to understand which genes are turned on or off only work on large amounts of biological samples. As a consequence all measurements we receive represent averages across multiple cell types present in the sample. The situation is comparable to studying the contents of a bowl of fruits after they have been blended to make a smoothie.
Rapid technological advances are now enabling us to study the activity of genes in individual cells thereby allowing us to study disease processes at a molecular level.
Together with collaborators in Japan we have been at the forefront of developing several key ’single-cell’ technologies.
To drive the adoption of these technologies in WA we set up a Perth wide consortium involving all major hospitals, medical research institutes and universities in Perth. The program is funded by the Cancer Research Trust (http://cancerresearchtrust.org.au) and the Computational Biology team at The Kids is leading the analysis working group.
We are have generated 58 single cell datasets using the 10x Genomics platfrom from 9 cancer types as part of a series of pilot projects. Our team has set up standardised analysis frameworks allowing lab based researchers to interpret the outcome of these single cell experiments. Furthermore we have enaged in a close collaboration with the Pawsey Supercomputing center to further streamline the data processing and data management.
This research is funded by the Cancer Research Trust.