2022-10-003 - scFlea-Chip - scFLEA-ChIP: epigenome profiling at single cell resolution

scFlea-Chip

2022-10-003

Efficient, reproducible, sensitive and affordable unprecedented technology for single cell epigenetic profiling. Affordable and comprehensive approach not requiring the usage of specific devices.

Social: Health and Safety

Single cell ChIP technologies have emerged as a groundbreakingtechnological achievement to address fundamental cell biology questions, which are currently not addressable with bulk-sequencing approaches. Implementation of single cell resolution sequencing technologies, such as RNA-Seq and ATAC-Seq, for which clinical relevance has already been reported serve to exemplify the revolutionary potential of epigenetic low input methodologies such as scFLEA-ChIP. Thus, scFLEA-ChIP holds the potential to become a reference tool for the identification of epigenetic signatures at single cell level, not yet achieved in the genomics field. The knowledge stemming from scFLEA-ChIP implementation will help to elucidate cell heterogeneity within healthy and diseased tissues/individuals as well as to eventually design specific therapies to hamper disease progression.

Lack of high resolution tools to epigenetically profile scarce and/or degraded samples to obtain panels of epigenetic biomarkers for diagnosis, prognosis and disease monitoring: single-cell technologies have emerged as an extraordinary resource to provide insight into the cellular composition of tissues and organs and how different cell populations contribute to their function. For most genomic approaches, such as the study of the transcriptome at single-cell resolution, well-established commercial protocols are currently available and widely used. However, the study of the epigenome at single-cell level is still an open question. In particular, in the case of protein-DNA interactions, no Single Cell Chromatin Immunoprecipitation sequencing (scChIP-Seq) solutions exist that bypass the current lack of efficient and reproducible approaches for ultra-low-input samples.

150000000

10000000

1500000

Licensing to epigenetic companies

To date, no commercial solution is available in the market to identify protein-DNA interactions at single-cell resolution. Despite several attempts to pursue epigenetic profiling at the single cell level through scChIP-seq or alternative methods have been reported, none of those has been adopted by the scientific community due to their lack of reproducibility and scalability.

Research Laboratories (through epigenetic companies)

The projects is not seeking funds at this stage but rather partners for clinical validation with human samples (healthy and diseased individuals) as well as beta testing in different pathological scenarios.

1. Industry Collaborations; 2. Academic Beta testers; 3. Licensees (epigenetic companies)

1. Clinical PoC (technology validation in different settings); 2. IP protection (Priority Patent Filing); 3. Licensing

scFLEA-ChIP is a highly reproducible, sensitive, affordable and scalable technology to profile protein-DNA interactions from low input or degraded samples and at single cell resolution.

Difficulty of IP protection stemming from the nature of the methodology

2023: Technology validation with human clinical samples (collaborations with industry and academia in different settings)/2024: IP protection (Priority Patent Filing)/2025 onwards: Licensing to epigenetic company/ies

IP under examination for priority filing

Recently, a European Priority Patent has been filed to protect the FLEA-ChIP technology. The main focus is now validating the technology in clinically relevant settings in collaboration with industry and academic partners and expand the application. The scientific FLEAChIP team has established a partnership with the company Oryzon Genomics under the framework of the Proyecto en Colaboración Público Privada DICTIONIS.

0

0

scFLEA-ChIP will be eventually transformed in a commercial kit, with a first research use only application followed by a diagnostic tool development stage. This will effectively place single cell ChIP among other single cell technologies that are currently impacting in research and clinical practice. Providing an unprecedented understanding of protein-DNA interactions in development and disease.