This MIT News article describes the development of Seq-Well, a portable and low-cost platform for single-cell RNA sequencing created by Alex Shalek and collaborators at MIT. The system enables researchers to simultaneously profile thousands of individual cells using relatively simple equipment, overcoming the cost and complexity barriers that previously limited access to single-cell technologies. By capturing and analyzing each cell’s gene expression profile, Seq-Well allows scientists to identify distinct cell types and understand what they are doing in real time. The approach opens up new possibilities for studying immune responses, infectious diseases, and cancer across a wide range of clinical and laboratory settings, reflecting Shalek’s broader efforts to make high-resolution genomic tools more widely accessible and impactful.
