Qingdao Institute of BioEnergy and Bioprocess Technology, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Email:
xujian@qibebt.ac.cn
100-word biography:
Jian XU obtained B.S in Biotechnology from Peking University in 1997, and M.S. in Computer Science and PhD in Biochemistry (with Jeffrey Gordon) from Washington University in St. Louis in 2003. He joined CAS-QIBEBT in 2008 and founded Single-Cell Center in 2014. He and his colleagues proposed the Ramanome concept, invented CAST-R, FlowRACS, RACS-Seq and EasySort, and developed synthetic biology tools for industrial microalgae and microbiome. Jian has published over 140 papers that collected over 12,000 citations (H-index 52). He is a senior editor of mSystems. His contribution was recognized by a number of awards from NSFC, MOST and CAS, including National Distinguished Young Scholars Award (2014), National Young-Scientist Award for Science and Technology (2016) and VCANBIO Award for Biosciences and Medicine (2016).
Title:
Ramanome, FlowRACS and RACS-Seq: linking single-cell metabolic phenome and genome for synthetic biology and precision medicine
Abstract:
“Test” of cellular metabolic function, one of the three technological pillars of Synthetic Biology (the other two are “Design” and “Build”), underlies nearly every aspect of life sciences and biotechnology industry. A single-cell is the unit of function and evolution for life forms on Earth, therefore establishing the link between metabolic phenome and genome (and transcriptome, etc) is of fundamental importance. We have proposed “Ramanome” as a type of single-cell metabolic phenome that is non-invasive, label-free, information-rich, ultrafast, high-throughput, low-cost and universally applicable. Then the IRCA (Intra-Ramanome Correlation Analysis) algorithm was introduced, which unveils a network of metabolite conversion based on a single instance of a single sample. Furthermore, we invented a series of Raman-activated Cell Sorters, such as RACS-Seq and FlowRACS, to sort and sequence individual human, algal, fungal and bacterial cells with targeted metabolic phenome via their single-cell Raman spectra. The advantages of RACS-Seq and FlowRACS as compared to FACS (Fluorescence-activated Cell Sorting) have been demonstrated in screening novel enzymes and cell factories, and for distinguishing and sorting individual drug-resistance cells (cancers and pathogens). As metabolic phenome directly captures the “function” of a cell, ramanome and FlowRACS/RACS-Seq have become powerful new tools for synthetic biology and precision medicine.
