vivoPHIX™-enabled platform published in Cell Reports reveals new insights into Th17 biology
vivoPHIX™-enabled platform published in Cell Reports reveals new insights into Th17 biology
A new study published in Cell Reports (August 2025) demonstrates how RNAssist’s vivoPHIX™ fixative underpins a powerful new technique — Vivo-seq — enabling simultaneous single-cell analysis of transcriptional and phospho-signaling states. This represents a major step forward for researchers looking to understand dynamic intracellular signalling with single-cell precision.
Figure 1A from: Fortmann SD, Chadha AS, Frey BF, Elahi A, Hanumanthu VS, Liu S, et al. Integration of phospho-signaling and transcriptomics in single cells reveals distinct Th17 cell fates. Cell Reports. 2025;44(8):116006. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116006
vivoPHIX™: Critical to preserving multiple biological layers
Developed by RNAssist, vivoPHIX™ is a deep eutectic solvent (DES) designed to preserve labile biological information across modalities — including RNA integrity, post-translational modifications (PTMs), and phospho-epitopes — without the need for harsh crosslinking. In this study, researchers used vivoPHIX™ to develop a novel workflow called Vivo-seq, integrating intracellular CITE-seq and droplet-based scRNA-seq.
The team demonstrated that vivoPHIX™:
Maintains high-quality RNA suitable for scRNA-seq after long-term storage
Preserves intracellular phosphorylation, enabling quantitative analysis of key signalling proteins
Supports intracellular immunostaining for high-parameter single-cell readouts
Retains native cellular morphology, even in difficult-to-process tissues such as mouse colon
These capabilities enabled researchers to explore dynamic Th17 T cell fate decisions, revealing that dual phosphorylation of ERK1/2 and c-FOS identifies a hyperactivated Th17 state characterised by enhanced IL-2 production and increased plasticity during secondary stimulation.
“This work highlights how vivoPHIX™ opens up new possibilities in single-cell analysis — bridging molecular phenotyping with preserved functional states.” — Andrew Goldsborough, co-founder of RNAssist and co-author on the study
Overcoming single-cell multi-omics limitations
Until now, simultaneous measurement of transcription and intracellular signalling in single cells has been constrained by technical barriers. Standard fixatives often compromise RNA quality or damage epitopes. vivoPHIX™ overcomes this challenge — offering a non-crosslinking, reversible fixative that enables robust multi-omic integration.
The implications are wide-ranging, with potential applications in:
Immunology and cytokine signalling
Cancer and developmental biology
Biobanking and single-cell diagnostics
About the study
The research was led by Seth D. Fortmann and colleagues at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in collaboration with RNAssist. The full paper is open access:
Integration of phospho-signaling and transcriptomics in single cells reveals distinct Th17 cell fates Cell Reports, August 2025 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2025.116006
