Nano-electrokinetic transcriptomics empowers the phenotyping of single cells
May 30, 2025 @ 14:00 – 17:00 CEST
Seminar with Prof. Hirofumi Shintaku, Kyoto University, Japan
Host: Ian Hoffecker, SciLifeLab
Abstract
Nanopore electroporation uses nanoscale structures to create focused electric fields, which form pores in lipid bilayers with low invasiveness. We here discuss the biophysics of the pore formation that depends on the cell surface tension and introduce an approach that leverages nanopore electroporation and single-cell RNA-sequencing to parallelly profile cell surface tension and gene expression, electroporation-based lipid-bilayer assay for cell surface tension (ELASTomics). We show that ELASTomics dissects the heterogeneity in cellular mechanics and uncovers the regulatory mechanism in cancer malignancy, cell differentiation, and cellular senescence.
Biography
Dr. Hirofumi Shintaku is a Professor at the Institute for Life and Medical Sciences (LiMe), Kyoto University.
He studied Mechanical Engineering at Kyoto University in Japan, receiving his undergraduate, master’s, and Ph.D. degrees in 2002, 2004, and 2006, respectively. From 2006-2012, he worked as a Research Associate in the Department of Mechanical Science and Bioengineering at Osaka University in Japan. From 2012 to 2018, he worked as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Micro Engineering at Kyoto University. From 2012 to 2015, he was a visiting scholar at Stanford University in the United States and collaborated with Professor Juan G. Santiago. From 2018 to 2025, he worked as a RIKEN Hakubi Team leader at RIKEN, where he initiated his own research group and has pioneered single-cell RNA-sequencing approaches, SINC-seq (Abdelmoez et al. Genome Biol 2018, Oguchi et al. Sci Adv 2021), ELASTomics (Shiomi et al. Nat Commun 2024), and live embryonic transcriptomics (Torii et al. under review). Since 2023, he has been directing the Nano Bioengineering Laboratory at LiMe, Kyoto University.
He was awarded the Best Paper Award from JSAEM (2006), the IIP Division Award for Young Engineer from JSME(’09), JSME Young Engineers Award (2010), Osaka University Achievement Award (2011), Certificate of Merit for Micro-Nano Science and Technology Division of JSME (’14), the Micro-Nano Engineering Excellent Paper Certificate of Merit (2022), Nakatani Encouragement Award (2025), RIKEN Biho Award (2025).
His current research activities include developing microfluidic systems for single-cell analyses and measurement techniques of fluid dynamics in nano/micro-confined spaces.
ian.hoffecker@scilifelab.se
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