nir-vana innovation network

Problem description: Usually, scientists try to preserve biological specimens by deep freezing or harsh fixation methods like formaldehyde. In no case the cells are left in their natural state. This leads to the situation that today’s analyses are biased by an artificial sample status. If cells are removed from their natural surrounding tissue for analysis, they almost immediately change their properties. To date, cells are either fixed or studied alive. Research is trapped in an analytical dilemma: either chemical and biological changes or biological changes and storability. In contrast, the developed methodology “freezes” native state of cells and tissue (means stabilizing of all biomolecules while maintaining the cellular morphology) without low-temperature freezing or formaldehyde artifacts. Solution: Unique solutions for a just now snapshot of the cell without inducing artificial changes. It enables research and diagnostics to do unbiased, precise analyses of cells. Using our fixation reagent, a just now snapshot of the cell can be taken by fixing the cell in native state without any change of molecular patterning It is a non-toxic solution for complete protecting of Ribonucleic acids (RNA), DNA, protein and the cellular shape integrity in cells and tissues, including tumours, white blood cells and cultured cells. The solution is developed for fast “one step” stabilizing of biomolecules in life science research and diagnostics. As soon as cells get exposed to our fixative reagent their metabolic state is frozen – without applying low temperatures (“liquid freezing”). The products are compatible with morphological analyses and staining procedures, including single cell analysis, immunocytochemistry, immunohistochemistry, and flow cytometry, among many other downstream applications. A unique and special feature of CellCover is the ability to perform additional molecular analysis on cells that have already been analyzed on a morphological or molecular level: DNA (e.g. PCR), RNA (e.g. RNA seq or single cell RNA-seq) or protein (e.g. protein modification analysis, protein sequencing, or proteomic analysis) can be isolated for subsequent applications after initial immunolabeling, immunohistochemistry, immunocytochemistry, or flow cytometry analyses. These unique properties now enable new types of analyses of cellular functions and morphological structures. It allows the snapshot of “as-is” expression status, so the real natural sample status and thus potentially all downstream applications. Also (sub-)populations of cells can be separated and subsequently analysed for gene expression profiles on DNA, Ribonucleic acids (RNA) or on protein-level. Thus, it is easy to link genome, transcriptome and proteome of a given cell population.