New Tool Developed to Help Uncover Hidden Gene Associations

An analytical approach for single-cell RNA-sequencing that is able to test for broad changes in gene behavior within human tissue has been developed. The new method is called single-cell higher-order testing, or scHOT.

In a paper published today in Nature Methods, a research team from the University of Sydney and colleagues in China, the U.S., and the U.K., demonstrates the effectiveness of this method by identifying genes in mice whose variability change in cells during embryonic liver development.

Led by senior author Jean Yang, the team has also found novel pairs of genes that co-vary in expression across the mouse olfactory bulb, an important tissue for understanding neurodevelopmental diseases.

According to the team, scHOT is a powerful new tool that will uncover hidden gene associations in our cells and facilitate the full exploitation of these cutting-edge single-cell technologies to make important biological discoveries.