Drop-on-demand single cell isolation and total RNA analysis

We present a microdroplet-based method to isolate and pattern single cells from heterogeneous cell suspensions (10% target cell mixture), preserve viability of the extracted cells (97.0 ± 0.8%), and obtain genomic information from isolated cells compared to the non-patterned controls. To evaluate the sensitivity and reproducibility of a functional genomic analysis of stem cell encapsulating droplets, we used DNA microarrays to measure gene expression levels in RNA samples extracted from mouse embryonic stem cells obtained by using drop-on-demand. We compared the results with RNA extracted from a control pool of mESCs, which were isolated with serial dilution and manual pipetting.