International Workshop on single-cell analysis was held in Tomsk

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«Traditionally, we offered a rich program to the Workshop participants: the opportunity to listen to lectures by leading scientists in the field of single-cell analysis, to obtain some first-hand valuable skills at the practical works, to share their experience and get useful contacts. We held the practical work on spatial transcriptomics, which allows to study the activity of genes in cells while maintaining their location in the tissue, for the first time in Russia,» said Evgeny Denisov, the Co-Chair of the Workshop Organizing Committee, the Head of the Laboratory of Cancer Progression Biology at the Cancer Research Institute of Tomsk NRMC, one of the recognized world leaders in this field of biomedicine.

He stated that the participants of Workshop “Single Cell Analysis” had a chance to see new scientific equipment helping to investigate the single cells. Partner companies helped deliver the equipment from Moscow to Tomsk. For example, the BeamCyte-1026 Flow Cytometry system, the Genolab M Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) platform and the DSC-400 Single Cell Suspension Dissociator (produced by Chinese companies of BeamDiag, Genemind and RWD Life Science) were first presented in Russia at the Workshop.

Nadezhda Cherdyntseva, Evgeny Choynzonov, Evgeny Denisov

In total, 55 researchers from Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sochi, Novosibirsk, Kazan, Chelyabinsk, Tomsk, Irkutsk, Yakutsk, and other cities became the participants of the Workshop; their applications were previously strictly selected. The speakers included representatives of Lomonosov Moscow State University (Moscow), ITMO University (St. Petersburg), Tomsk National Research Medical Center (Tomsk), University of Freiburg (Freiburg, Germany), Institut Curie (Paris, France), The Rockefeller University (New York City, USA), and other scientific, medical and educational organizations.

«The topic of the Workshop is connected with one of the most important technological revolutions of recent years in biology. The technology of whole-genome analysis of single cells allowed to ask questions even the formulation of which was unimaginable before. The complexity and the scope of data produced by biological and medical researches first became comparable to the complexity of studied systems themselves (embryo, tissue, organ, and tumor).

Over the medium term, this technology pervades modern medicine and changes it completely. The role of education and transfer of living knowledge in this area is hard to overestimate because there are no textbooks, well-known protocols or generally acceptable solutions! The Workshop carries out an important mission, such events today, in fact, is the only way to raise experts in this field,» shared the opinion Andrei Zinovyev, one of the Workshop speakers (Institut Curie, Paris, France).

Earlier we reported that during the Workshop, an Association for Single Cell Analysis has been announced.

The Co-Chair of the Workshop Organizing Committee, Professor Nadezhda Cherdyntseva, said that the Workshop was supported by a large grant from the Russian Science Foundation for world-class laboratories. She emphasized that in the future, the development of this priority field of biomedicine would improve the efficiency of personalized therapy for various diseases, primarily cancer, and reduce their medical and social burden on society.

«Every year, the scope of the Workshop is growing. It has become the platform for communication, exchange of experience, partnership of leading experts in promising and rapidly developing fields such as single-cell sequencing and bioinformatics. It is important that they are ready to share their knowledge with the younger generation of researchers! Our Workshop has the excellent potential to become the hallmark of Science Tomsk!» summarized Evgeny Choynzonov, the Co-Chair of the Workshop Organizing Committee, the Director of the Cancer Research Institute of Tomsk NRMC and the Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences.

The event organizers: Tomsk National Research Medical Center and ITMO University (Project №19-75-30016).