Research & Development We are
committed to being on the leading edge
R&D is at the heart of Single Cell Discoveries. We pioneered the SORT-seq, VASA-seq, and Discovery-seq methodologies and are driven to keep innovating new ways to study single-cell multi-omics and spatial modalities. Our team is continuously working to implement better protocols that improve the accuracy, resolution, flexibility, and ultimately value of our services.
Overview
An expert team driving
innovation and versatility
We are driven to innovate
Our team has deep experience with the technology and an insatiable curiosity that keeps our services futureproof by optimizing our methods, assimilating new protocols, and upgrading our infrastructure.
We like challenges
Our R&D unit is eager to work on your non-standard project, whether it is a novel application, a tough tissue, or an uncommon species requiring technological tinkering. We say "yes" to challenges others reject.
We keep you ahead of the curve
We are dedicated to offering clients the most advanced technologies in the single-cell and spatial field to give them an edge against the competition and accelerate their therapeutics towards the clinic.
We consistently evolve
Our R&D team is always working on adaptations to our current services to improve client experience and elevate data quality. Recently, we have introduced automated nuclei isolation, targeted amplification, and fixed RNA profiling.
THE R&D TEAM
Meet our experts
Click on a profile to read more personal info.
Dylan Mooijman
Head of R&D
Dylan Mooijman, PhD, leads the research and development team responsible for developing new technologies and improving current methods.
He brings a hefty 10 years of experience with single-cell technologies to the team, which he gained as a postdoc and HFSP fellow at EMBL Heidelberg (Ephrussi lab) and PhD student in the Van Oudenaarden lab (Hubrecht Institute).
Sabine Tanis
TEAM LEAD METHOD DEVELOPMENT
Sabine Tanis, PhD, is Team Lead Method Development in the R&D department and is responsible for enhancing current protocols, developing new methods, and supporting demanding customer requests.
Before working at SCD, she worked as a postdoc at the Radboud Institute for Molecular Life Sciences in Nijmegen, studying keratinocyte biology through multi-modal single-cell sequencing methods.
Oriol Llorà Batlle
TEAM LEAD R&D
Oriol Llorà Batlle, PhD, is responsible for coordinating the efforts of SCD within the PERSIST-SEQ consortium. He loves challenges and using cutting-edge technologies to address challenging questions.
He obtained his BSc degree in Biology at the University of Girona and his MSc and PhD in Biomedical Research at Pompeu Fabra University in Barcelona. Before joining SCD, he was working at the University of Cambridge doing research on developmental biology.
Darina Šikrová
R&D SCIENTIST
Darina Šikrová, PhD, works as a scientist in our R&D department, where she is working on improving the currently offered methods as well as developing new ones.
Born and raised in Slovakia, she obtained her BSc in Biology there and, afterward, her MSc in Molecular Biology and Genetics in the Czech Republic. After that, she moved to the Netherlands to get her PhD at Leiden University Medical Centre on a gene therapy approach to Facioscapulohumeral muscular dystrophy.
Michiel Fokkelman, PhD
AUTOMATION SCIENTIST
Doreth Fransen works as an Automation Scientist in our R&D department. Currently, she focuses on managing and testing new robotic solutions to automate our current and new techniques.
Prior to joining Single Cell Discoveries, she completed her Bachelor of Applied Sciences in Biotechnology (with a major in Forensic Sciences) at Van Hall Larenstein and graduated with her Master's in Biology of Disease at Utrecht University.
Recent publications
bioRxiv
A Double-Negative Prostate Cancer Subtype is Vulnerable to SWI/SNF-Targeting Degrader Molecules
bioRxiv
SP140 limits type I interferon-driven pathology, preserving T cell motility and promoting resistance in tuberculosis
Nature Communications
Targeted CRISPR-Cas9 screening identifies core transcription factors controlling murine haemato-endothelial fate commitment
Case studies
Pioneering 10x Flex on OCT-Embedded Patient Brain Tissue
10x Genomics opened the gates for single-cell sequencing on non-fresh, non-thawed tissue with their Chromium Single Cell Gene Expression Flex (10x Flex) kit. Now, we have been successful in performing…
Immune Profiling of atherosclerosis reveals new therapeutic potential
A team of scientists uses 10x Genomics Single Cell Immune Profiling to characterize T cells in the atherosclerotic plaque. Their results redefine atherosclerosis as an autoimmune disease.
Mechanism of disease: a new hypothesis for atherosclerosis
To elucidate atherosclerosis’ mechanism of disease, Sheffield University researchers analyzed the transcriptomes of single endothelial cells.
COLLABORATIONS AND CONSORTIA
Partnerships play a dual role in our operations. In alignment with our vision, we work on projects that help adapt single-cell applications to diagnostic and therapeutic purposes. Meanwhile, we access resources and experience that fuel our own evolution.
Blog posts
How DRUG-seq Reveals Mechanism-of-Action (MoA)
DRUG-seq is becoming a widely used transcriptomics method to study how compounds affect cellular biology at scale. In drug discovery, identifying compounds that produce a biological effect is only the…
Why a list of genes is not a cell type
Single-cell sequencing is one of the most powerful discovery tools in biology. In a single experiment, you resolve full transcriptomes across every major and minor cell type in your tissue….
How to choose cell number and sequencing depth for your single-cell experiment
There is one question that should precede almost every other decision in single-cell experiment design: “what is the rarest cell population I really care about?” Not which platform to use….




