Single Cell Sequencing and Spatial Transcriptomics in Kidney Transplantation

Purpose of Review: Progress in biology and medicine relies on technological advances. The ability to examine gene expression from single cells in tissues with complex architecture is now possible with the advent of single cell sequencing and spatial transcriptomics methods. This review will outline how these methods have been applied to kidney transplantation and their inherent challenges and limitations. Recent Findings: The transcriptomes of single cells can now be defined in health and disease allowing for the differences to be investigated. Advanced in situ sequencing and capture methodologies now add spatial resolution to single cell transcriptomics. However, such powerful methods bring challenges, most notably the associated computational burden that is required to make the resulting high-dimensional output data interpretable. A second challenge is that of cost. Thankfully, as with many new technologies’ costs will drop over time making these methods available to more research groups. Summary: The sequencing and analysis of gene expression at the single cell level with spatial information retained is now feasible. These methods are major advances for biomedical research and bring huge potential with regards to the better understanding of disease at cellular and organ levels.