/ News
New Method Allows Gene Expression Tracking over Generations of Cells
MIT researchers engineered a microfluidic device that traces detailed family histories for several generations of cells descended from one "ancestor." [Video: Melanie Gonick/MIT (additional video courtesy of the Manalis Lab)]
Scientists at MIT said they can now trace detailed family histories for several generations of cells descended from one ancestor after combining RNA sequencing with a novel device that isolates single cells and their progeny. This technique, which can track changes in gene expression as cells differentiate, could be particularly useful for studying how stem cells or immune cells mature, noted the researchers, adding that it could also shed light on how cancer develops.
“Existing methods allow for snapshot measurements of single-cell gene expression, which can provide very in-depth information. What this new approach offers is the ability to track cells over multiple generations and put this information in the context of a cell’s lineal history,” says Robert Kimmerling, a graduate student in biological engineering and the lead author of a paper (“A microfluidic platform enabling single-cell RNA-seq of multigenerational lineages”) describing the technique in Nature Communications.
The new method incorporates single-cell RNA-seq, which sequences a single cell’s transcriptome and reveals which genes are being transcribed inside a cell at a given point in time. This helps scientists understand, for example, what makes a skin cell so different from a heart cell even though the cells share the same DNA.
“Scientists have well-established methods for resolving diverse subsets of a population, but one thing that’s not very well worked out is how this diversity is generated. That’s the key question we were targeting: how a single founding cell gives rise to very diverse progeny,” points out Kimmerling.
To try to answer that question, the researchers designed a microfluidic device that traps first an individual cell and then all of its descendants. The device has several connected channels, each of which has a trap that can capture a single cell. After the initial cell divides, its daughter cells flow further along the device and get trapped in the next channel. The researchers showed that they can capture up to five generations of cells this way and keep track of their relationships.
To get the cells off the chip, the researchers temporarily reverse the direction of the fluid flowing across the chip, allowing them to remove the cells one at a time to perform single-cell RNA-seq.
In this study, the team captured and sequenced T cells that—when they encounter a cell infected with a virus or bacterium—create effector T cells, which seek and destroy infected cells, as well as memory T cells that retain a "memory" of the encounter and circulate in the body indefinitely in case of a subsequent encounter.
“A single founding cell can give rise to both effector and memory cell subtypes, but how that diversity is generated isn’t very clear,” explain Kimmerling.
The scientists analyzed RNA from recently activated T cells and two subsequent generations. When comparing genes with functions related to T-cell activation and differentiation, they found that sister cells produced from the same division event are much more similar in their gene expression profiles than two unrelated cells. They also found that “cousin” cells, which have the same “grandmother,” are more similar than unrelated cells. This suggests unique, family-specific transcriptional profiles for single T cells.
The researchers hope that future studies with this device could help to resolve the long-standing debate over how T cells differentiate into effector cells and memory cells. One theory is that the distinction occurs as early as the first T cell division following activation, while a competing theory suggests that the distinction happens later on, as a result of changes in the cells’ microenvironment.
To address this question, the researchers believe they would need to analyze the development of T cells taken from a mouse that had been exposed to a foreign pathogen, providing a useful model of T cell activation in response to infection.
Source: http://www.genengnews.com/gen-news-highlights/new-method-allows-gene-expression-tracking-over-generations-of-cells/81252188/
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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