BioSpyder Expands Patent Coverage to Focal Gene Expression Profiling
Carlsbad, California, USA – August 25, 2021 – Today, BioSpyder Technologies, Inc. announced that the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has issued U.S. Patent 11,091,810, entitled “Focal gene expression profiling of stained FFPE tissues with spatial correlation to morphology.” This extends the TempO-Seq™ platform to include spatial transcriptomics, profiling gene expression from very small sub-regions of formalin fixed, paraffin embedded (FFPE) tissue, and fixed cells sorted and assayed using a variety of methods, including fluorescence activated cell sorting (FACS) into bulk preparations or single cells.
TempO-Seq is an unbiased, targeted, highly multiplexed, high throughput assay of nucleic acids that can measure gene expression, splice variants, gene fusions, and single base variations in samples of cells, fresh tissue, or FFPE slides without having to extract RNA or DNA. The FFPE version of the TempO-Seq assay can read whole transcriptomes from less than 1 mm² excised from a 5 µm tissue section.
The new application for spatial profiling allows the same tissue to also be antibody or H&E stained, providing multi-omic data. Regions of interest can thus be identified visually, and gene expression can be profiled specifically from the selected areas.
Antibody staining can be for both extracellular and intracellular proteins. Not only can differential expression be measured, but the functional molecular phenotype of single cells can be identified, not just the type of cell. For FACS-based assays, the process permits subpopulations of cells and single cells to be sorted and profiled. Combined with the multi-omic capability, the gene expression pattern of each individual cell can be evaluated considering its cell surface and internal markers.
“We continue to expand the applications of our TempO-Seq platform technology and increase its utility in the development of new drug discovery, translational research, and diagnostic applications. The FACS-based assay and additional approaches for single-cell analysis, as well as the spatial transcriptomics application of TempO-Seq, are powerful tools for investigators that will facilitate the discovery of new insights. The ability to measure low expressed genes from single cells enables advanced capabilities for investigators to pursue single cell studies, which no other single-cell assay provides,” said Joel McComb, Chief Executive Officer of BioSpyder.
About BioSpyder. BioSpyder focuses on expanding advanced molecular biology technologies in multiple areas of science, with particularly wide use in toxicology, cancer biology, and environmental health. A spinoff company in the UK, BioClavis, is currently expanding the use of TempO-Seq and related approaches in the fields of precision medicine and drug discovery.