Distinguishing Cell Types and States Using eToeholds
The cell is the basic unit of structure and function of organisms, and it is the smallest unit of all living organisms except viruses. Cell state refers to the comprehensive state of cells in terms of composition, shape, structure, and function. The factors that affect and determine the cell state are complex, therefore, the cell state can reflect various factors. Cells contain the entire genome of an organism, and its biggest feature is differentiation. Cells from the same source will gradually differentiate into cell groups with different morphological structures and functional characteristics. Identifying different types of cells helps us to understand the expression of each gene in the cell and the overall development of the organism, and is an important basis for cell biology research.
Conventional Methods for Distinguishing Cell Types and States
Histological and morphological identification is one of the traditional cell type identification methods, but this method is susceptible to subjectivity and the results are less accurate. Cells can also be tested immunologically using kits to distinguish cell types and states, however, this method destroys the cellular structure. With the development of molecular biology, single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) has become a core method for identifying and characterizing cell types, states, and lineages. Selecting genes that identify cell identities can distinguish cell types well, but this method is complicated to popularize.
Eukaryotic Toehold Switches in Distinguishing Cell Types and States
As a powerful tool for synthetic biology, eukaryotic toehold switches (eToeholds) can disrupt the inhibitory loop, promote the directional translation of cellular genes, and can achieve up to 16-fold gene inducible expression in mammalian cells. Not only can it be used to distinguish viral infection states, the presence of gene expression, but also cell types and states. Defining cell types is an important basis for conducting cell biology research, so it is of great significance to develop a simple, efficient, and non-damaging detection technology. CD BioSciences has a complete toehold switches technology platform and a reliable technical team that can apply eToeholds to distinguish cell types and states.
The Services We Can Provide Based on eToeholds
eToeholds differentiate between cell states and cell types by selectively activating corresponding proteins based on endogenous RNA levels. As a biotechnology company representing the international level, CD BioSciences, based on the established toehold switches technology platform, can provide professional solutions for scientific research teams engaged in cell biology research. We are able to provide them with eToeholds RNA elements targeting specific targets through the following services.
Advantages of eToeholds in Distinguishing Cell Types and States
- eToeholds RNA is highly editable.
- Both endogenous and exogenous mRNA expression can be controlled by eToeholds.
- Induce high-fold expression and visualize mRNA in cells without disrupting cells.
CD BioSciences has a professional technical development team, which has been engaged in the application development related to eToeholds for a long time. If you are interested in eToeholds technology for cell type and states identification, please contact us today for technical support.
Reference
- Wang, S.; et al. A Novel Synthetic Toehold Switch for MicroRNA Detection in Mammalian Cells. ACS Synth Biol. 2019, 8(5): 1079-1088.