Modular barcode beads for microfluidic single cell genomics

Abstract

Barcode beads allow efficient nucleic acid tagging in single cell genomics. Current barcode designs, however, are fabricated with a particular application in mind. Repurposing to novel targets, or altering to add additional targets as information is obtained is possible but the result is suboptimal. Here, we describe a modular framework that simplifies generation of multifunctional beads and allows their easy extension to new targets. One Sentence SummaryWe describe an optimized design for barcoding beads which are useful for single cell RNA and DNA sequencing.