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Bringing precision oncology to cellular resolution with single-cell genomics

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Abstract

Single-cell sequencing technologies have undergone rapid development and adoption by the scientific community in the past 5 years, fueling discoveries about the etiology, pathogenesis, and treatment responsiveness of individual tumor cells within cancer ecosystems. Most of the advancements in our understanding of cancer with these new technologies have focused on basic tumor biology. However, the knowledge produced by these and other studies are beginning to provide biomarkers and drug targets for clinically-relevant subpopulations within a tumor, creating opportunities for the development of biologically-informed, clone-specific combination treatment strategies. Here we provide an overview of the development of the field of single-cell cancer sequencing and provide a roadmap for shepherding these technologies from research tools to diagnostic instruments that provide high-resolution, treatment-directing details of tumors to clinical oncologists.

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Abbreviations

TCGA:

The cancer genome atlas

ICGC:

International cancer genome consortium

TARGET:

Therapeutically applicable research to generate effective treatments

PCR:

Polymerase chain reaction

scRNA-seq:

Single cell RNA sequencing

MDA:

Multiple displacement amplification

ATAC-Seq:

Assay for transposase-accessible chromatin with high-throughput sequencing

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Funding

C.G.’s work on single-cell cancer sequencing is supported by the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub Investigator Program, a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Career Award for Medical Scientists, and an NIH Director’s New Innovator Award (1DP2CA239145).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Pediatrics, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Stanford University, Stanford, USA

    Yuntao Xia & Charles Gawad

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  1. Yuntao Xia
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  2. Charles Gawad
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Correspondence to Charles Gawad.

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Xia, Y., Gawad, C. Bringing precision oncology to cellular resolution with single-cell genomics. Clin Exp Metastasis 39, 79–83 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10585-021-10129-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10585-021-10129-4

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