Title: Using single-cell RNA-sequencing to provide insight into cell fate

Speaker: John Marioni (WT Sanger Institute and CRUK Cambridge Institute)

Abstract: With recent technological developments it has become possible to characterize a single cell’s genome, epigenome, transcriptome and proteome. In particular, single-cell RNA-sequencing (scRNA-seq) has been widely applied to study heterogeneity in populations of neurons, in the immune system and in early development, revealing the existence of new populations of cells and differentiation trajectories. Fully exploiting such data requires the development of novel computational methods, with many of the tools developed for bulk RNA-sequencing not being appropriate for scRNA-seq. In this presentation I will describe an update on some of the methods we have recently developed to address these challenges, and will illustrate their application in the context of early mammalian development, focussing especially on gastrulation and organogenesis in the mouse.