Towards sub-cellular mass spectrometry omics: The SEISMIC facility for spatially resolved single and sub-cellular omics

Single-cell analysis is a new and rapidly growing field that is shedding new insight into the cellular mechanisms behind the pathogenesis and treatment of infectious diseases and cancer. Cells, even within a single tissue, culture or biological fluid are highly heterogenous. Analysis of bulk material therefore only provides an average value, meaning that information is lost. Single cell transcriptomics and proteomics are already making major advances to understand infection, immunity and drug delivery. Single cell lipidomics and metabolomics are highly desirable to understand the endpoint of metabolism, but currently lag behind the other “omics” at single cell level. Similarly, sub-cellular analysis is highly desirable to understand cellular rearrangement in response to stressors such as pathogens and radiation.

 

The SEISMIC facility for spatially resolved single and sub-cellular “omics” is a new multi-user facility, that aims to advance single cell and sub-cellular measurements, together with and for the benefit of bioscientists across the UK. At SESIMC, we use capillary sampling to sample live cells or sub-cellular compartments under microscope observation. This method of sample capture can be coupled to chromatographic separation, which offers additional advantages in mitigating matrix effects and aiding peak assignment. We will show how live single-cell lipidomics can be achieved using capillary-sampled cells as well as microfluidics. We will show the expected performance from state-of-the-art mass spectrometry systems. We will also show how these technologies can be applied to reveal how single cell lipid profiles of cancer cells respond to drug and radiation treatment. We will further report on progress towards sub-cellular sampling and mass spectrometry metallomics and proteomics analysis

 

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