Single Cell Genomics Center Enters Transformative New Era

Single Cell Genomics Center Enters Transformative New Era

Bigelow Laboratory for Ocean Sciences is excited to announce the appointment of new leadership - as well as new tools, analytical services, and a bold vision for the future - for the Single Cell Genomics Center.

SCGC is currently the only facility in the world that offers open-access services and educational programs in microbial single cell genomics. Senior research scientists Nicole Poulton and Julia Brown are now jointly leading the state-of-the-art facility. Poulton already serves as director of the Center for Aquatic Cytometry that provides the flow cytometry expertise for SCGC so her joint appointment will enable stronger coupling between the two centers, increasing efficiency and reducing costs. Brown began her career at Bigelow Laboratory as SCGC's first bioinformatics scientist before her promotion to a senior research scientist position last summer.

"People didn't think this kind of work was even possible originally, but we've watched this center grow from a vague idea in a proposal into the amazing resource it is today," Poulton said. "We're excited to build on that legacy but also to expand it further and take our science in new, exciting directions."

As co-directors, Brown and Poulton's priorities are to make SCGC's services more widely accessible; develop new partnerships and serve more clients; and spur innovation leveraging a string of recent advances and the center's knowledgeable and skilled staff.

This new era of SCGC will also leverage recently acquired tools that are helping the team push the envelope on what's possible scientifically. Last year, Bigelow Laboratory received a $2.7 million award from the NSF's Major Research Instrumentation program to purchase new robotics and a new sequencer that is helping streamline the center's analytical workflow. That grant, coupled with a generous private donation, also enabled the purchase of other state-of-the-art instruments at the Center for Aquatic Cytometry that will help scientists differentiate cells with more detail and precision than ever.

"We're starting this next chapter with a whole suite of incredible tools that are going to help us make this cutting-edge work and the services we offer less expensive and more efficient," Brown said. "Our support services are highly customizable, and we are open to package our services to fit different sequencing needs."

These new tools are enabling the team to both continue some of the groundbreaking work of recent years and explore new opportunities.

That includes a new environmental microcompartment genomics approach published last year that uses advances in microfluidic technology to increase the throughput and efficiency of single cell sequencing. Senior Research Scientist Melody Lindsay will work with SCGC to apply this new technique to ecosystems with very little biomass, studying how individual cells may function based on their genomic blueprint - one of the most fundamental challenges of microbiology.

Later this month, Senior Research Scientist John Burns will also be working with SCGC and the Center for Aquatic Cytometry to sequence the first radiolarian genome with new foundation funding. These marine protists form intricate glass skeletons that have long intrigued ocean explorers, but basic knowledge on their life history has eluded scientists; single cell genomics may provide the pathway to decode these enigmatic creatures.

"Projects like these highlight the creative pathways we can go down by taking advantage of the expertise we have in our institution," Poulton said.

Brown and Poulton said they are excited to explore other ways to expand the uses of SCGC technology in research. That may include integrating additional data streams into their analyses and applying single-cell sequencing to study new systems, like the human microbiome. They also anticipate building new bioinformatic tools and leveraging AI to enhance the genomic data the center produces and uncover new patterns and relationships in the microbial world.

Going forward, the center is continuing to create new services and make its data more accessible. A big piece of that effort, the co-directors said, is lowering costs and barriers to entry to facilitate science "in whatever shape or form people need," including supporting customers with specific needs or projects in the exploratory, pilot stage. A related goal is to restart the single cell genomics symposium to build out the ecosystem of SCGC users and partners and complement existing professional development courses offered by SCGC and the Center for Aquatic Cytometry.

"It's all part of our vision for educating the community and making sure our data and services are more available and more approachable," Brown said. "We have amazing equipment. We have an amazing team. We have established state-of-the-art methodologies. We're open for business to help you figure out what single cell genomics can do for you."

Photo Captions

Photo 1: The Single Cell Genomics Center team from left to right: Senior Research Scientist Julia Brown, Senior Research Associate Brian Thompson, Bioinformatician Greg Gavelis, Research Associate Corianna Mascena, and Senior Research Scientist Nicole Poulton (Credit: Skyler Cummings).

Photo 2: The appointment of Poulton, director of the Center for Aquatic Cytometry, as co-director of SCGC will enable more coupling between the two world-class facilities. (Credit: Bigelow Laboratory).

Photo 3: Poulton and Thompson in the lab (Credit: Bigelow Laboratory).