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Single-cell biology has transformed how we decode cellular heterogeneity, but a new frontier is emerging: understanding what individual cells do, not just what they express. The ability to observe live cellular function over time, with high dimensionality and experimental precision, is revealing powerful new insights across immunology, oncology, and therapeutic discovery.
This shift is being driven by a new generation of live single-cell functional analysis platforms. Among them, Bruker Cellular Analysis’s Beacon® portfolio is setting a high standard. It enables researchers to design and control single-cell experiments with exquisite precision, capture high-dimensional functional data, and link it to each cell’s transcriptomic or genomic identity, all with automation and scalability.
The newest platform, Beacon Discovery™, brings these capabilities into an accessible, compact benchtop format, making function-first, live single-cell research possible for a broader range of academic, translational, and biotech labs.
Function is the Missing Link in Single-Cell Research
Single-cell sequencing and immunophenotyping have delivered deep insight into gene expression and cellular identity, but they often fall short in capturing dynamic behavior. Researchers still rely on inferred function, secondary screens, or pooled assays to determine how a cell responds to stimuli or interacts with its environment.
Directly observing cellular function, such as biomolecular secretion, target cell killing, or cell-cell interaction in real time leads to deeper biological understanding and more confident candidate selection. It also helps address key questions in immunotherapy, vaccine development, and autoimmune research, including:
- Which tumor-infiltrating T cells demonstrate active cytotoxicity, cytokine secretion (e.g., IFN-γ), and a defined surface marker profile?
- Which B cells secrete antigen-specific antibodies with desired functional activity and the highest potency?
- How do cell behaviors evolve over time under therapeutic pressure?
Measuring this behavior at the single-cell level and linking it to transcriptomics or receptor data is transforming how researchers approach discovery and translational science.
The Beacon Suite: Precision, Depth, and Scalability
All platforms in the Bruker’s Beacon suite use proprietary Opto-Electrical Positioning (OEP) and OptoSelect® chips to precisely isolate and analyze thousands of live single cells in nanoliter chambers called NanoPens. They deliver:
- Exquisite Control: Build tailored single-cell experiments with unparalleled precision.
- Highest Parameters on Chip: Conduct real-time imaging for serial multi-modal analysis on the same live cells.
- Infinite Possibilities off Chip: Identify and recover high-value cells and link functional data to downstream sequencing.
- Automated Scalability: Analyze 500 to 80,000 single cells, supporting precious clinical samples or high-throughput screens.
These capabilities are advancing T-cell profiling and CAR/TCR discovery, cell therapy validation, biomarker discovery, and antibody profiling and discovery.
Beacon Discovery: Bringing Functional Biology to More Labs
While flagship Beacon systems support pharma, CROs and large-scale discovery teams, Beacon Discovery™ packages the platform’s core power into a more accessible, compact form. It is:
- Accessible: Lower cost of ownership, reduced running costs, and intuitive interface ease adoption.
- Compact: Benchtop size maximizes lab space without sacrificing functionality.
- Flexible: Delivers end-to-end workflows for immune profiling, antibody discovery, and custom functional assays.
- Proven: Built on widely published and validated optofluidic platform.
Researchers can perform multiple sequential assays on the same live cells, capturing cytokine release, cytotoxic behavior, and surface marker expression, while integrating downstream analyses like TCR-seq and mRNA-seq. Antibody campaigns can assess affinity, antigen specificity, cross-reactivity, ligand blocking, membrane-bound antigen binding, and antibody sequences.
From Insight to Impact
Beacon Discovery is already being used to characterize tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), identify rare functional B cells, and uncover new immune cell subsets with therapeutic relevance. Researchers can track how cells respond to antigens, secrete biomolecules, and engage targets, then recover them for deep molecular profiling.
The future of immunology, cell therapy, and translational discovery depends not just on identifying cells, but understanding how they behave. As the field embraces function-focused profiling, Bruker’s Beacon platform provides a unified solution to support discovery at any scale, from academic labs to therapeutic pipelines.
Ready to See What’s Possible? Talk to a Bruker specialist to explore how live single-cell functional analysis and the Beacon portfolio can elevate your research.
