Staff Scientist, II Becton, Dickinson and Company Milpitas, California, United States
Disclosure(s):
Elham Hatami, PhD: No financial relationships to disclose
Introduction/Rationale: Single-cell profiling has evolved to simultaneously capture mRNA, surface proteins, and immune receptor repertoires. However, challenges such as low-abundance transcript detection, sequencing cost, and background noise from unbound antibodies continue to limit assay performance.
Methods: We present an updated plate-based workflow featuring WTA NEXT, a high-sensitivity whole transcriptome analysis (WTA) assay that significantly improves gene and molecule recovery per cell. Benchmarking against the previous WTA version demonstrated a 27% increase in median genes per cell and a 30% gain in median molecules per cell. These improvements enhance cell classification resolution, rare transcript detection, and overall assay efficiency.
Results: Combined with modular lyophilized antibody panels—available for T, B, NK, tumor, and antigen-presenting cells —WTA NEXT supports flexible multiomic profiling. Researchers can tailor experiments using different panel combinations, and the format allows drop-ins without affecting performance when additional markers are needed.
Conclusion: The plate-based format enables post-capture washes to reduce ambient antibody background, while signal-dampening strategies improve detection of low-abundance proteins. The updated full-length TCR/BCR (VDJ) assay offers increased sensitivity for low abundance clonotypes, enabling robust repertoire profiling. When integrated with transcript and protein data, this assay reveals deeper insight into clonal expansion, cell state, and functional diversity. Together, these innovations deliver a sensitive, modular, and cost-efficient workflow for high-content single-cell immune profiling.
