Page 28 - aruba-today-20190305

A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 5 March 2019

New techniques let scientists zero in on individual cells

By MALCOLM RITTER their treatments are work-
AP Science Writer ing against a cancer over
NEW YORK (AP) — Did time.
you hear what happened A decade or two from now,
when Bill Gates walked into it might let doctors detect
a bar? Everybody there im- cancers very early by pick-
mediately became million- ing up and analyzing the
aires — on average. DNA of rare cells in blood
That joke about a very rich tests, he says.
man is an old one among MAPPING ALL THE CELLS
statisticians. So why did Pe- Meanwhile, the ability to
ter Smibert use it to explain produce single-cell re-
a revolution in biology? sults for hundreds of thou-
Because it shows averages sands of cells at a time has
can be misleading. And opened the door to a huge
Smibert, of the New York effort to catalog every cell
Genome Center, says that type in the human body.
includes when scientists are More than 1,000 scientists
trying to understand the from 57 countries have
basic unit of life, the cell. joined the Human Cell At-
Until recently, trying to las Consortium , which esti-
study key traits of cells from mates it will eventually pro-
people and other animals file at least 10 billion cells
often meant analyzing bulk found in both healthy and
samples of tissue, produc- sick people.
ing a mushed-up aver- Why do this? It’s a natural
age of results from many follow to the big project
cell types. It was like trying that catalogued all the hu-
to learn about a banana A scientist at the NY Genome Center in New York demonstrates equipment used in single-cell man genes, says co-orga-
by studying a strawberry- RNA analysis on Wednesday, Sept. 26, 2018. nizer Aviv Regev, a biology
blueberry-orange-banana Associated Press professor at the Massachu-
smoothie. of the year” for 2018. Its leading to a slew of discov- amounts of CFTR, surpass- setts Institute of Technol-
In recent years, however, announcement declared, eries. In just the past year, ing earlier but only dimly ogy and researcher at the
scientists have developed “The single-cell revolution is for example: understood indications Broad Institute of MIT and
techniques that let them just starting.” — Scientists closely tracked that such cells existed. Harvard. (Her salary is paid
directly study the DNA A SLEW OF DISCOVERIES gene activity within fish The discovery offers great by the Howard Hughes
codes, the activity of genes Even complicated animals and frog embryos, a step potential for guiding the Medical Institute, which
and other traits of individu- like us are really just mas- toward the longstanding development of new treat- also supports The Associat-
al cells. The approach has sive communities of cells, goal of understanding how ments, said Dr. William ed Press Health & Science
become widely adopted, each taking on a particu- a single fertilized egg can Skach, senior vice presi- Department.)
revealing details about lar role and working with produce an animal. One dent of research affairs for The gene map led to identi-
the body that couldn’t be its neighbors. An average study compiled results from the Cystic Fibrosis Founda- fying thousands of genetic
shown before. And it has adult human has 37 trillion more than 92,000 zebrafish tion. Single-cell techniques variants that raise or lower
opened the door to pur- or so of them, and they’re embryonic cells. will be important in study- the risk of many diseases.
suing an audacious goal: surprisingly varied: the in- — Other researchers re- ing them further for com- But to turn that into thera-
listing every cell type in the ner lining of the colon, for vealed details of the physi- ing up with new therapies, pies, scientists have to
human body. example, has more than 50 cal connection between he said. (Two co-authors know in which cells those
“Single-cell analysis is cru- kinds of cells. pregnant women and the of one paper are from the variants act, she said. And
cial for a comprehensive It was just five years ago fetus, giving potential clues foundation). to run down those cells
understanding of our biol- that methods for decoding for understanding some At the MD Anderson Can- in the human body, “we
ogy and health,” Dr. Fran- of DNA and its chemical causes of stillbirth. cer Center of the University have to map all of them.”
cis Collins, the director of cousin RNA from individual — A study found a pattern of Texas, Nicholas Navin Some cells are rarer than
the National Institutes of cells became broadly ac- of gene activity in some uses single-cell DNA stud- others, but these can be
Health, declared recently. cessible, according to the melanoma cells that let ies to reveal different pat- just as critical for a func-
In fact, the journal Science journal Nature Methods. them resist immunotherapy, terns of mutations in various tioning body as their more
named the techniques that New techniques are still be- the practice of unleashing cells of a single tumor. That plentiful neighbors, she
allow single-cell tracking of ing developed to pry more the body’s immune system lets him reconstruct when said.
gene activity over time in and more secrets out of in- on cancer. That might lead and where those mutations She hopes for a first draft of
developing organisms and dividual cells. to finding a way to render appeared as the tumor the cell atlas in about five
organs as its “breakthrough The single-cell approach is those cells vulnerable. evolved from benign cells. years, focused on certain
And a pair of other stud- And he can identify cells organs and tissues of the
ies may affect research that contain combinations body. To finish the job might
into cystic fibrosis, the ge- of mutations that make take about a decade, she
netic disease that causes them the most lethal. figures.
lung infections and limits Someday, such research Regev won’t hazard a
breathing ability. Scientists should indicate what treat- guess about how many cell
have long known that the ments to use for particular types will be found for the
disease stems from a faulty patients, or which patients entire human body.
version of protein called have the highest risk of “This is not going to cure all
CFTR. The studies identified the disease progressing, disease immediately,” she
a type of rare cell in the he says. It might also allow said, but “it is a critical step-
airway that makes large doctors to check how well ping stone.”q