title: Single-cell isolation by a modular single-cell pipette for RNA-sequencing.
abstract: Single-cell transcriptome sequencing highly requires a convenient and reliable method to rapidly isolate a live cell into a specific container such as a PCR tube. Here, we report a modular single-cell pipette (mSCP) consisting of three modular components, a SCP-Tip, an air-displacement pipette (ADP), and ADP-Tips, that can be easily assembled, disassembled, and reassembled. By assembling the SCP-Tip containing a hydrodynamic trap, the mSCP can isolate single cells from 5-10 cells per μL of cell suspension. The mSCP is compatible with microscopic identification of captured single cells to finally achieve 100% single-cell isolation efficiency. The isolated live single cells are in submicroliter volumes and well suitable for single-cell PCR analysis and RNA-sequencing. The mSCP possesses merits of convenience, rapidness, and high efficiency, making it a powerful tool to isolate single cells for transcriptome analysis.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA. lqin@houstonmethodist.org and Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Kai
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.affiliation: Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Zechen
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chong
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA. lqin@houstonmethodist.org and Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Ying
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8689-5578
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA. lqin@houstonmethodist.org and Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA.
authors.forename: Xin
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Han
authors.affiliation: Human Genome Sequencing Center, Department of Molecular and Human Genetics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Rui
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Nanomedicine, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, USA. lqin@houstonmethodist.org and Department of Cell and Developmental Biology, Weill Medical College of Cornell University, New York, NY 10065, USA and Department of Molecular and Cellular Oncology, The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, TX 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Lidong
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Qin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D045744:Cell Line, Tumor; D002469:Cell Separation / Q000295:instrumentation*; D051379:Mice; D041681:NIH 3T3 Cells; D017423:Sequence Analysis, RNA / Q000295:instrumentation*; D059010:Single-Cell Analysis / Q000295:instrumentation*