China's first unicellular research institute was established in Qingdao on Aug 26. It was founded by the Qingdao Institute of Biomass Energy and Bioprocess Technology and the Chinese Academy of Science, Technology Daily reported.

Xu Jian, researcher in charge of the institute, said the institute would study single-cell sorting, functional genomics and community synthesis. With technical support from microfluidics and computational biology, they hope to make breakthroughs in the unicellular field.

The single cell is the basic unit of life. By identifying, sorting and analyzing a single cell, one can observe the heterogeneity of a living system as well as its operating mechanisms. Such technology could serve human beings in fields such as bioenergy, environmental monitoring, climate change, disease diagnosis, food safety and eco-agriculture.

The institute, through cooperation with its partners, has successfully developed the world's first Raman-Activated Cell Sorter (RACS), which can sort cells in an efficient way.

In the future it will concentrate its efforts on developing a Single-Cell Genetic Analyzer (SGA). Both RACS and SGA are apparatuses used to carry out research on single cells.