Impact of the single cell revolution on neonatology research

Single cell technologies are quickly becoming more affordable and widespread throughout academic research. We review the application of single cell and multi-omic technologies to study neonatal health and disease, as well as their potential to further impact translational discoveries in the future.

Pediatric and neonatal development and disease have been largely understudied compared to their adult counterparts. This difference can be partially attributed to limited sample access and small sample volumes. Single cell and multi-omic approaches have drastically altered the landscape of neonatal research, as they allow for the acquisition of large volumes of data from small and limited samples. When profiled individually, even a few hundred cells contain a wealth of information that was previously inaccessible with prior techniques. Single cell technologies have revealed profound cellular heterogeneity, dynamic regulation over time and across tissues, disease activity, and many other factors.

The use of single-cell technologies has rapidly advanced our understanding of baseline immune development and pathologies of early-life, however, there is a pressing need for development and benchmarking of multi-modal platforms that measure parameters beyond mRNA transcripts, and the analytical tools required to integrate these complex datasets.