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Current and future perspectives of single-cell multi-omics technologies in cardiovascular research

Nature Cardiovascular Research volume 2, pages 20–34 (2023)Cite this article

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Abstract

Single-cell technology has become an indispensable tool in cardiovascular research since its first introduction in 2009. Here, we highlight the recent remarkable progress in using single-cell technology to study transcriptomic and epigenetic heterogeneity in cardiac disease and development. We then introduce the key concepts in single-cell multi-omics modalities that apply to cardiovascular research. Lastly, we discuss some of the trending concepts in single-cell technology that are expected to propel cardiovascular research to the next phase of single-cell research.

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Fig. 1: Illustration of the single-cell sequencing technologies and the measured modalities.
Fig. 2: Single-cell isolation and library construction methods.
Fig. 3: Summary of the main cardiac cell types identified in human hearts.
Fig. 4: Illustration of computational analysis commonly applied to single cells.
Fig. 5: Creation of Cell Village to minimize cost and batch effect in single-cell profiling.

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Acknowledgements

We acknowledge funding support from American Heart Association grant 20POST35210896 (to W.L.W.T.); F30 HL156478 (to A.Z.); National Institutes of Health (NIH) grants R01 HG010359 (to W.H.W.), and R01 HL145676, R01 HL146690, R01 HL130020, R01 HL145676, R01 HL141371 and R01HL126527 (to J.C.W.); and Chan Zuckerberg Initiative 2020-217708 and 2021-240451 (to J.C.W.). We thank B. C. Wu (Stanford University), D. T. Paik (Stanford University), S. S. Hye (Stanford University) and L. C. J. Mick (National University of Singapore) for critical reading of the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, Stanford, CA, USA

    Wilson Lek Wen Tan, Wei Qiang Seow, Angela Zhang, Siyeon Rhee & Joseph C. Wu

  2. Greenstone Biosciences, Palo Alto, CA, USA

    Angela Zhang, Siyeon Rhee & Joseph C. Wu

  3. Department of Statistics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    Wing H. Wong

  4. Department of Biomedical Data Science, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    Wing H. Wong

  5. Department of Genetics, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    William J. Greenleaf

  6. Department of Medicine, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, USA

    Joseph C. Wu

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W.L.W.T. conceived and wrote the manuscript and created the figures. W.O.S., A.Z. and S.R. compiled the references and wrote the manuscript. W.H.W. and W.J.G. wrote the manuscript, with input from all authors. J.C.W. directed the manuscript and reviewed it for important intellectual content.

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Correspondence to Joseph C. Wu.

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W.J.G. is an equity holder of 10x Genomics and a cofounder of Protillion Biosciences and J.C.W. is a cofounder and scientific advisory board member for Greenstone Biosciences, but the work presented here is completely independent. The remaining authors declare no competing interests.

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Tan, W.L.W., Seow, W.Q., Zhang, A. et al. Current and future perspectives of single-cell multi-omics technologies in cardiovascular research. Nat Cardiovasc Res 2, 20–34 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s44161-022-00205-7

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