10x Genomics Chromium Connect Assurance Plan

Background
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the nation’s leading medical research agency and the primary Federal agency whose mission is to seek fundamental knowledge about the nature and behavior of living systems and the application of that knowledge. The mission of the NIH also includes enhancing health, lengthening life, reducing illness and disability, conducting, supporting, and making medical discoveries that improves and saves people’s health and lives. The opioid crisis highlights the urgent need for novel non-addictive pain medications, as well as improved treatments for opioid addiction and overdose. There is a need for pharmacological agents directed at novel targets to test new therapeutic hypotheses, new clinic-ready drugs directed at those targets, and new testing systems with the potential to be more predictive of human clinical response than traditionally used models. Through the Helping to End Addiction Long-term (HEAL) Initiative, NCATS will focus on the development of human cell-based models of opioid misuse and addiction and of pain. The Stem Cell Translation Laboratory (SCTL) is a state-of-the-art research facility within NCATS’ Division of Pre-Clinical Innovation is dedicated to addressing the scientific and technological challenges in the iPSC field. Specifically, the SCTL aims to develop a renewable supply of human cell-based models focusing on new patient-derived iPSC lines that give rise to specialized, functional nerve cells that are relevant for opioid misuse, addiction, and pain.

Work Details
Title: 10x Genomics Chromium Connect Assurance Plan

Statement of Need and Purpose: The Chromium Connect by 10X Genomics is a platform for automation of single-cell library construction workflows, such as 3' RNA sequencing, ATAC sequencing or DNA copy number variant analysis. These workflows offer insight into transcriptional and epigenetic landscapes on the single-cell level with unprecedented detail. A single library preparation protocol for 1 to 8 samples for 3' RNA sequencing application can take a skilled researcher as many as 3 or more days. Automation of the protocols minimizes hands-on time and greatly increases sample throughput. Additionally, it leads to standardization of the procedures and virtually eliminates technical variation. The Assurance Plan ensures the Chromium Connect is operating optimally, is serviced annually, and any issues can be addressed in a timely manner.

Background Information and Objective: Single-cell sequencing is a novel method that allows to derive global transcriptomic profiles - information on the expression level and nature of the transcripts - from each individual cell analyzed. Previously, this was only possible from bulk populations of cells and thus only population-level averages were available. These innovations allow for unprecedented detail in studying how genes contribute to disease or how their expression correlates with cellular phenotypes and processes such as differentiation.

Period of Performance
12 months