Neutrophils, a type of white blood cell, are the body’s first responders in fighting infections and play a critical role in inflammation and immunity. Understanding how their genes are expressed can provide valuable insights for developing diagnostics, designing therapies, and improving clinical trials.

However, neutrophils are fragile cells. Their gene activity can be altered during processing, storage, and even transport, making them notoriously difficult to study. That’s where single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) comes in, a technique that measures gene expression in individual cells, giving researchers a clearer view of how these cells behave in health and disease.

Researchers at the Roche Innovation Center compared three leading technologies: 10x Genomics, PARSE Biosciences, and HIVE (Honeycomb Biotechnologies), to see how well each performs in capturing neutrophil transcriptomes from human blood. The researchers found that all three methods generated high-quality data, proving that scRNA-seq can indeed work for these sensitive cells.

Importantly, the team established guidelines for how to best handle neutrophil samples during collection and processing to preserve RNA quality. These findings not only pave the way for more accurate neutrophil research but also set a standard workflow that could be used in clinical trials. By applying these approaches, scientists can better capture how neutrophils function and respond, helping move us closer to precision diagnostics and therapies.