2017 Keystone Symposia on Single Cell Omics

Single cell omics is a new frontier in biology, where genome-wide data is captured at the resolution of individual cells. Single cell high-throughput technologies are being developed in the areas of imaging, mass spectrometry and DNA- and RNA-sequencing, and combinations thereof. The corresponding software and visualization tools are also a large active field of research. Single cell omics has important implications for all areas of development, differentiation and cellular decision-making, because these can now be studied at unprecedented resolution. Equally, single cell omics methods are shedding new light on immunity and cancer, due to the heterogeneous cell populations involved in both areas of biology. Therefore, these approaches are revolutionizing both basic biology as well as our understanding of disease, and technologies involved in translation to medicine. Since the field is in its infancy, and there are few meetings dedicated to this topic, there is a huge unmet need in the community to congregate and exchange ideas and information about new methods and the biological insights gained. A meeting such as this will be of continuing importance until single cell omics technologies become commonplace and established, and integrated into all areas of biology.