Peter Siegel, PhD, is part of the 12 research teams from four Québec universities who have been awarded major funding as part of an investment of $4.5M in a new public-private partnership program called Genomics Integration Program – Human Health. The project involves Agilent Technologies Inc as a partner to develop single-cell metabolomics workflows and Julie St-Pierre, PhD, (University of Ottawa) as a critical research collaborator in this initiative.
Pr. Siegel's research project will focus on single-cell metabolomics by looking at the metabolomic heterogeneity and architecture of solid cancers. The field of metabolomics is dedicated to studying and measuring these essential biological processes through information-rich technologies, such as mass spectrometry. While protocols that measure gene expression or protein levels have been adapted to single cell analysis, researchers currently can only measure metabolites within bulk cell populations or tissues. Indeed, single cell omics technologies have revolutionized our understanding of complex, heterogeneous diseases such as cancer. However, DNA sequence and RNA transcript levels do not correlate directly with levels of proteins or metabolites. To understand complex phenotypes at the level of an individual cell, single cell metabolomics methods are required. The overall objective of this project is to develop a workflow for the measurement of targeted metabolites at a single cell resolution in cancer cells.
In addition to making a significant contribution to the development of innovation zones connected to Québec's major research institutions, these funds will help up-and-coming researchers position themselves favourably in major funding programs, including those of Genome Canada.
Read more about Dr. Siegel's project
Read the full Press Release from Génome Québec