Combinatorial labeling of single cells for gene expression cytometry

Single-cell expression analysis on a large scale To understand why cells differ from each other, we need to understand which genes are transcribed at a single-cell level. Several methods measure messenger RNA (mRNA) expression in single cells, but most are limited to relatively low numbers of cells or genes. Fan et al. labeled each mRNA molecule in a cell with both a cellular barcode and a molecular barcode. Further analysis did not then require single-cell technologies. Instead, the labeled mRNA from all cells was pooled, amplified, and sequenced, and the gene expression profile of individual cells was reconstructed based on the barcodes. The technique successfully revealed heterogeneity across several thousand blood cells. Science , this issue 10.1126/science.1258367