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BirthSeq: an innovative method for analyzing dated cells in any vertebrate species

07 Aug 2024
This versatile technique allows marking and isolating living cells from any tissue based on their origin, thus becoming an advantageous tool for research into developmental biology.

In a recent article published in the journal Development, ACHUCARRO researchers present BirthSeq, a new method to sequence and analyze the transcriptome of cells based on their time of generation. BirthSeq consists of the combination of traditional cell dating techniques with flow cytometry to isolate living dated cells whose gene expression is subsequently analyzed by single cell sequencing (scRNA-Seq). In the same work, the authors present NeurogenesISS, a BirthSeq variant with spatial resolution that combines traditional cell dating with in situ sequencing (ISS), making it possible to identify in situ different cell types generated at the same time of development.

So far, BirthSeq and its spatial variant NeurogenesISS have yielded very promising results, thus establishing themselves as powerful tools to explore the crucial role of development in the generation of diverse cell populations. Furthermore, their versatility allows these techniques to be applied effectively in various vertebrate species and tissues, favouring their usefulness in fields other than neuroscience and developmental biology.

Eneritz Rueda-Alaña, Rodrigo Senovilla-Ganzo, Laura Escobar, Nora Bengoa-Vergniory and Juan Manuel Encinas de Achucarro are co-authors of this work, which has been led by Fernando García-Moreno and carried out in collaboration with the Genome Analysis Platform of the CIC bioGUNE (Derio), the Genomics Unit of the CNIC (Madrid) and the Molecular Diagnostics group of the Science for Life Laboratory (Stockholm).

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