A new method called SDR-seq – short for single-cell DNA-RNA sequencing – enables researchers to measure DNA mutations and gene activity within the same cell, offering a direct view of how genetic variation shapes cell function. The approach improves on previous multi-omic techniques, which often suffered from data loss and could not reliably connect genotype to transcriptomic effects at single-cell resolution. By reducing allelic dropout and scaling to hundreds of genomic targets, SDR-seq provides more accurate and comprehensive insights, demonstrating its effectiveness in both laboratory models and primary tumour samples.

ARTICLE

Lindenhofer, Dominik, Christian E. Saliba, René Schmutz, et al. "Functional Phenotyping of Genomic Variants Using Joint Multiomic Single-Cell DNA--RNA Sequencing." Nature Methods (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41592-025-02805-0.