Daniel "Lucas" Kerr (he/him) is a Genome Sciences graduate student in the medical scientist training program (MSTP) at the University of Washington. During his undergrad at UC Berkeley, Lucas conducted organic chemistry research for targeted drug delivery but later became interested in medical genetics and molecular biology at UC San Francisco while studying non-small cell lung cancer. In the Srivatsan Lab, he aims to apply chemical biology to improve current single-cell sequencing technologies to ultimately reveal new aspects of poorly understood human diseases and guide more effective treatment strategies.
This study presents a novel semi-permeable capsule (SPC) that isolates single cells while allowing selective biomolecular exchange, retaining larger biomolecules like genomic DNA while permitting smaller molecules to pass through. Using SPC-based single-cell whole genome sequencing (sc-WGS), researchers achieved high sensitivity and specificity in detecting genomic variants and successfully reconstructed cellular genealogies from cells harboring the hypermutator polymerase ε allele (POLE P286R).
