eBioscience PrimeFlow RNA Assay

eBioscience has announced the PrimeFlow RNA Assay, said to be the only flow cytometry assay capable of simultaneous detection of RNA and protein within millions of cells at single-cell resolution.

Current flow cytometry applications are limited to antibody-based interrogation of cell surface and intracellular proteins. With the PrimeFlow assay, researchers can incorporate the simultaneous analysis of RNA transcripts and proteins to elevate their understanding of single-cell dynamics.

The assay enables high-throughput detection of RNA and protein expression; therefore, it can be used to characterise, mechanistically and phenotypically, co-expression of RNAs with the functional proteins at the single-cell level. With a user-friendly protocol that has many similarities with standard antibody-staining procedures and data acquisition of flow cytometry, it is a suitable tool for immunology labs performing translational research.

The technology is able to detect, with high sensitivity, mRNAs for which flow cytometry antibodies against the corresponding proteins perform poorly or are not available. The capability to directly measure non-coding RNAs in a heterogeneous cell population has vast potential applications in cell biology.