#24 · Single-cell

Validated transcriptomics methods extend detection of fusions, ncRNAs, and biomarkers

The dominant thread is explicit validation of measurement and analysis steps in transcriptomics. Flexify-designed probes detect oncogenic gene fusions in scRNA-seq, validated in MCF7 cells and paediatric B-ALL cohorts. dropTotal co-detects coding and non-coding transcripts in about 75,000 glioma nuclei to build a single-cell whole-transcriptome regulatory atlas. A long-read isoform atlas of 14 nasopharyngeal carcinoma tumors reveals novel splicing and fusions, with the TS-SNAD framework predicting neojunction-derived neoantigens. The alignment-last approach compares reads across cohorts through a reference-free k-mer index (merome) to support transcriptomic biomarker discovery. What is new is the expansion of validated scope: total RNA capture of non-coding species, fusion detection at single-cell resolution, and reference-free cross-cohort comparison. Each claim rests on a specific dataset, and the items share a methodological emphasis rather than a single platform or assay.