Single cell analysis is an emerging technology that helps sequence whole human genome at a single cell level. This particularly includes genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, epigenomics, and metabolomics with its sensitivity improved to single cell level. In genomics, new generation methodologies such as next generation sequencing and third generation sequencing play crucial roles. The aim of single cell analysis is mainly to measure and analyze cellular heterogeneity. Single cell analysis interpret life at fundamental level and find immense applications in the field of medicine. Single cell analysis over conventional standard cell numbers sequencing method enable the discovery and investigation of unknown micro-organisms. A study published in the Journal of Single Cell Analysis 2014, stated that a variety of technologies that are powerful and less expensive, such as Multiple Annealing And Looping-Based Amplification Cycle (MALBAC) and Multiple Displacement Amplification (MDA), find great progress in uncovering somatic mutations in human genome and detection of copy number variation. But in human single-cell genomics, Whole Genome Sequencing or Whole Exome-Sequencing (WGS or WESseq) finds great potential in clinical applications, especially in screening, diagnosis, and monitoring. It is popular in academic research because mRNA helps bridge genome structure and epigenomics modification with phenotype, reveals gene functions and regulatory network, and most importantly it is easier to perform than proteomics.

Inclination toward single-cell technology by biologists is mainly because many samples including stem cells, immune cells, neurons, cancers, and other tissues exhibit a stochastic nature with heterogeneity factor. Conventional methods cannot provide transcriptomic profile in highly heterogeneous cell population. Even if cell population is less, single cell analysis can enable the identification of biomarkers of delicate phenotypes or disorders (e.g. cancer stem cells). In addition, this analytical technique also helps classify different cell types in different physiological and pathological conditions, in very rare events of any somatic mutation, epigenetic modification of regulatory gene expression, and its function.

10x Genomics, in 2017, launched the chromium single cell V(D)J solution for profiling full length paired V(D)J transcripts from hundreds to millions of lymphocyte. It is a reagent system, which has the ability to completely identify and characterize T and B cells by single cell sequencing. This will reveal true clonality and diversity in adaptive immune system. This product will have an impact on research based single cell analysis market.

Adoption rate of treatment options, for instance, stem cell therapy and in-vitro fertilization (IVF) is increasing significantly. Moreover, long shelf life of single cell analysis products and consumable products is another driver for the growth of single cell analysis market.

However, high cost of instruments may have a negative impact on market growth in future.

Global Single Cell Analysis Market – Trends and Opportunity

A study by the Journal of Analytical and Bioanalytical Chemistry in 2014, stated that Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (ICP-MS) and ICP Optical Emission Spectrometry (ICP-OES) are applied using metal atoms such as nanoparticle for investigation of cell-to-cell variance or cellular uptake of drugs and other elements. Single-cell genomics find many clinical applications such as genetic diagnosis of embryo-related diseases and to study blood-borne Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs). These applications may be further employed for diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment of cancer.

Major key players in the global single cell analysis market include 10X Genomics, Abcam Plc., Agilent Technologies, Fluxion Biosciences, Becton, Dickinson and Company, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc., Bio-Techne Corporation, Bruker, Danaher Corporation, Fluidigm Corporation, GE Healthcare, and Illumina, among others.

Key Developments in Single Cell Analysis Market

In June 2019, Proteona Pte. Ltd. launched its latest ESCAPE proteogenomics assay, for the characterization of Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T cell. The Proteona CAR-T assay is based on the Enhanced Single Cell Analysis with Protein Expression (ESCAPE) RNA sequencing technology.

In March 2019, Mission Bio launched Tapestri Designer, an automated cloud-based tool for designing targeted single-cell DNA custom panels. It is an easy-to-use web interface and will create custom panels in minutes for the Tapestri Platform.

In November 2018, Dolomite Bio launched high throughput single nuclei RNA sequencing (sNuc-Seq) protocol for its Nadia Instrument. It enables researchers to profile both complex and archived tissues for accelerating disease and drug discovery research in therapeutic areas such as oncology and neurology.

In September 2018, Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. launched its scATAC-Seq solution, a single-cell assay for transposase-accessible chromatin using sequencing. The solution enables genome-wide open chromatin sequencing at the single-cell level with the help of company’s proprietary ddSEQ Single-Cell Isolator.

In June 2018, New England Biolabs (NEB) launched NEBNext Single Cell/Low Input RNA Library Prep Kit for Illumina. The new kit can produce full-length transcript sequence-ready libraries from single cells and ultra-low input RNA when incorporated with optimized template switching protocol and NEB’s Ultra II FS enzymatic DNA fragmentation technology.

In September 2017, Becton, Dickinson and Company launched BD Rhapsody, a single cell analysis platform. The platform has been designed to perform gene expression profiling. It can detect rare molecules responsible for biological diversity that are often missed with whole transcriptome profiling.

Global Single Cell Analysis Market Taxonomy

The global single cell analysis market is segmented on the basis of product, types of cells, type of technique, application, and end user.

By product:

Consumables (beads, microplate, reagents, assay kits, etc.)

Instruments (PCR, NGS system, spectrophotometers, etc.)

Automated



Manual

By Types of cells:

Human

Animal

Microbial

By Type of technique:

Mass Spectroscopy (MS)

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

Next-Generation Sequencing

Flow Cytometry

Microscopy

By Application:

Research

Diagnostic applications

Noninvasive Prenatal Diagnosis (NIPD)



In Vitro Fertilization (IVF)



Circulating Tumor Cells (CTCs)

By End User: