Rapid monoisotopic cisplatin based barcoding for multiplexed mass cytometry

Mass cytometry presents an exceptional opportunity to interrogate the biology of highly heterogeneous cell populations, owing to the ability to collect highly parametric proteomic data at a single cell level. However, sample-to-sample variability, due to antibody staining and/or instrument sensitivity, can introduce substantial artifacts into the data, which can in turn lead to erroneous conclusions. This variability can be eliminated by sample barcoding which enables samples to be pooled, stained and run simultaneously. Existing mass cytometry barcoding approaches require time intensive labeling, reduce the number of biologically meaningful parameters and/or rely on expensive reagents. We present an approach utilizing monoisotopic cisplatin to perform cell barcoding that does not require cell permeabilization, can be completed in 10 minutes and can be utilized in combination with existing barcoding techniques to greatly increase the number of samples which can be multiplexed to improve throughput and consistency.