H. Christina Fan

Papers

Total Citations

467

H-Index

About

H. Christina Fan is a pioneering molecular biologist whose work has fundamentally advanced the field of single-cell genomics. Her research centers on developing innovative technologies for high-throughput, low-cost analysis of gene expression and nucleic acids at the single-cell level. Fan's most impactful contribution is the invention of combinatorial cellular indexing, a method that uses stochastic barcoding to uniquely label transcripts from thousands of individual cells simultaneously. Her landmark 2015 paper, "Combinatorial labeling of single cells for gene expression cytometry," which has garnered over 467 citations, introduced a technically simple yet powerful approach that dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of single-cell RNA sequencing. This breakthrough has enabled researchers to reconstruct digital gene expression profiles from complex tissues with unprecedented resolution. Fan's work has been instrumental in democratizing single-cell analysis, making it accessible for a wide range of biological and clinical applications, from understanding cellular heterogeneity to discovering rare cell populations. Her contributions continue to shape the trajectory of precision medicine and systems biology.