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Updated: Jul 12, 2026
08:40
Methyl-binding DNA capture Sequencing for Patient Tissues
Published on: October 31, 2016
Single-cell DNA methylation profiling: Technologies, computation, and applications in precision oncology.
1Department of Microbiology, Gachon University College of Medicine, Incheon, South Korea.
Molecular Oncology
|July 10, 2026
Summary
Single-cell DNA methylation sequencing reveals cancer
Area of Science:
- Oncology
- Epigenetics
- Genomics
Background:
- Cancer is a heterogeneous disease driven by genetic and epigenetic alterations.
- Bulk sequencing masks rare but critical epigenetic patterns in cancer subclones.
- Intratumoral heterogeneity influences tumor initiation, metastasis, and therapy resistance.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide a comparative overview of single-cell DNA methylation sequencing modalities.
- To highlight the technical and chemical capabilities for distinguishing DNA methylation profiles at the single-cell level.
- To emphasize the role of scDNAme in understanding cancer hallmarks and guiding therapeutic strategies.
Main Methods:
- Review of emerging single-cell DNA methylation sequencing technologies.
- Comparative analysis of technical and chemical capabilities.
- Integration of advanced computational tools for data analysis.
Main Results:
- Single-cell DNA methylation (scDNAme) sequencing offers high resolution to dissect intratumoral heterogeneity.
- scDNAme enables discovery of novel aberrant patterns and reconstruction of cellular lineages.
- Identification of specific cancer cell populations like cancer stem cells (CSCs) and drug-resistant clones based on methylome signatures.
Conclusions:
- scDNAme is crucial for understanding cancer hallmarks like growth control evasion and apoptosis resistance.
- Resolving DNA methylation variants empowers precise cell lineage tracing and identification of refractory clones.
- scDNAme facilitates targeted epigenetic editing therapies against causal tumor subclones.
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