There are currently no methodologies that allow for epigenome, genome and transcriptome analysis all in a single cell. In addition, there are currently no methodologies that permit repeating the results of these analyses on the same single cells.
Scientists at the National Cancer Institute (NCI) Laboratory of Cellular Oncology have developed a method for generating a “reusable” single cell by crosslinking cellular proteins and DNA to a polyacrylamide scaffold, thus preserving the proteins and genomic DNA in their location even after repeated experiments on the same cell. Given the reusability of the cell, each experiment can be repeated multiple times, and statistical analysis can be applied to validate the results from single cells. Methods for detecting epigenetic changes using this methodology are also disclosed.