Our body consists of various organs, which are further composed of tissues that each include diverse populations of highly specialised cells. As such, it is important to precisely look at how each cell regulates its genes in order to understand animal physiology. All the existing methods to study cell-specific gene expression require cellular or molecular sorting. This can be quite time-intensive, however, and has considerable detrimental effects on cells, leading to limited applications. Professor Eric Miska’s Group at the Wellcome Trust Gurdon Institute have developed a new method, SLAM-ITseq, which enables scientists to study gene expression in a cell-specific manner through RNA labelling combined with a novel high-throughput sequencing method. Since SLAM-ITseq eliminates the need for cellular or molecular sorting, this method can be employed to study wider cell types in an animal in an easier, yet more accurate manner than ever before.
