Developing integrated single-cell metabolic/proteomic assays

Abstract

The technology boom of single-cell metabolomics and proteomics has led to exciting biological discoveries in the past decade. It has become widely acknowledged that resolving the intratumoral heterogeneity at single cell resolution can aid the understanding of cancer therapeutic response and progression, as well as facilitate the development of therapeutic interventions. Here we present an integrated assay that simultaneously quantifies the intracellular metabolites, glucose uptake, metabolic proteins and functional signaling proteins at the single-cell level. The measurement of metabolites is achieved through a series of competitive binding assays and is incorporated into the microfluidic-based single cell barcode chip platform. We demonstrate that this assay is capable of obtaining information from both protein and metabolic signaling pathways associated with tumor survival and progression, providing new insights into cancer heterogeneity and drug responsiveness.

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