The Europees Fonds voor Regionale Ontwikkeling (EFRO) / Kansen voor West project ‘Natural Intelligence in Health’ aims to expand knowledge of how substances work and to improve C. elegans as a laboratory model for gut health.
Until now, most research in this space has relied on observing what compounds do visually: how cells change shape, or how an organism behaves differently. That gives useful information, but it is limited. Visual categories are often subjective, and it is hard to know exactly why a change is happening.
Single Cell Discoveries is tackling this by adding a gene expression readout to large-scale compound testing. Instead of just watching what happens, the team can now read which genes switch on or off in response to a natural substance. This reveals the molecular story behind the effect and can detect changes too subtle to see under a microscope.
In contrast to mammalian cells, C. elegans is far more resistant to lysis methods and requires adjustment of multiple molecular biology steps, such as reverse transcription and amplification, to ensure reproducible RNA sequencing.
SCD was eligible for €50,000 in funding.
