Cambridge Healthtech Institut:Second Annual Single-Cell Sequencing

What was once unthinkable is now possible. Over the past decade, next-generation sequencing (NGS) has evolved at a rapid pace; dramatically reducing costs, thus making cancer genome sequencing more routine.
However, traditional NGS approaches, which require bulk DNA or RNA from multiple cells, are limited to providing global information on the average state of this population of cells and have been unable to resolve genomic differences found in heterogeneous tumors. Now advances in whole-genome amplification (WGA) and NGS methods have enabled genomic analyses of single cells.
These techniques can be used to detect genomic variations in individual cancer cells and dissect tumor evolution. Thus, sequencing of single cancer cells is likely to improve several aspects of oncology, including detecting rare tumor cells early, monitoring circulating tumor cells (CTCs), measuring intra-/intertumor heterogeneity, guiding chemotherapy and controlling the occurrence of drug resistance. Each are important goals in early cancer diagnosis, prognosis and prediction, leading to individualized cancer therapy.
Single-Cell Sequencing convenes many constituencies for frank and vital discussion of the applications, questions and solutions surrounding cancer genome analysis, including research scientists, physicians, diagnosticians, genetic counselors, bioinformaticists, ethicists, regulators, insurers and administrators.