CathyC Business Solutions

For research groups in North America

Single-cell and immune repertoire sequencing, sourced and vetted.

CathyC Business Solutions connects North American research groups to established Chinese laboratories and reagent manufacturers. We read a supplier's data before we introduce them.

USD 60per reaction

Tissue dissociation kits, most tissues

USD 1,635per sample

5′ transcriptome + paired TCR & BCR, kits only

Every price on this site is published. No quote request needed.

UMAP projection of single cells coloured and outlined by annotated cell type, including T-lymphocytes, NK, NKT, plasma cells, keratinocytes and fibroblasts
Annotated cell types from one run. Figure supplied by BestopCell.

The platform, in numbers.

Cells recovered
Up to 20,000 per sample
Cell capture rate
Up to 65%
Samples per run
1–4, loaded flexibly
Encapsulation time
6 minutes
1Preserveat the bench2Shipdry ice3Dissociatetissue-specific4Encapsulate6 min5Library8 h6SequencePE1507Analyseraw + processed
  1. Preserveat the bench
  2. Shipdry ice
  3. Dissociatetissue-specific
  4. Encapsulate6 min
  5. Library8 h
  6. SequencePE150
  7. Analyseraw + processed
Timings shown are the instrument steps the manufacturer specifies. Shipping and customs are the variable part, and the reason a pilot runs before anything larger.

01What we handle

02Analysis output

This is what comes back.

Standard analysis on the transcriptome side, run at the partner lab and returned with the raw reads. Example figures from previous studies — not your samples, and not ours.

Six t-SNE feature plots showing expression of ALB, CD3D, CD68, IGHG1, VWF and ACTA2
Marker expression projected per cell — hepatocyte, T/NK, myeloid, B, endothelial, fibroblast.
t-SNE of several merged samples with annotated cell type clusters
Several samples merged and annotated together.
Clustered heatmap of differentially expressed genes across cell groups
Differential expression, clustered.
Pseudotime trajectory across cells coloured by collection week
Pseudotime trajectory, here coloured by collection week.
Circular network of signalling between annotated cell populations
Signalling between annotated populations.
Chord diagram of ligand-receptor interactions between cell types
Ligand–receptor interactions between cell types.

Figures supplied by BestopCell.

03The partner lab

Named, because you should know.

Sequencing and library preparation run at Beijing BestopCell Co., Ltd., in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, on the CelCode® platform they developed. You are entitled to know that before you pack anything.

Beijing BestopCell Co., Ltd.

www.bestopcell.com

What we checked, and what we have not

The BestopCell building in the Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area
BestopCell, Beijing. Photograph supplied by the company.

04The actual problem

Cost was never the hard part.

Sequencing and reagent prices in China have sat below Western list prices for years. The difficulty is that capability is nearly impossible to judge from the other side of the world. Brochures are polished, reference lists are unverifiable, and a failed run on irreplaceable samples costs far more than the saving.

Before any introduction we ask for real data from a comparable study, not a figure lifted from a slide deck, and we read it the way a reviewer would. Where it does not hold up, there is no introduction.

We work with groups in Canada and the United States. Our representative is in Saskatoon, so on the prairies this can start over coffee rather than a quotation.

05Where to start

Start with the samples you already have.

If there is immune profiling somewhere in an animal-model study you are running — planned, stalled on budget, or already quoted elsewhere — that is the most useful thing to talk about. Tell us the species, the sample type, and roughly how many, and we can tell you whether this is worth your time.

Get in touch or read the full scope and limits.