学术报告(2018年9月28日，中南大学医学遗传学研究中心)

题    目：Inferring Developmental Trajectories and Causal Regulations with Single-cell Measurements

报告人：Xiaojie Qiu 博士 （University of Washington）

主持人：袁 凯 教授

时   间：2018年9月28日（星期五）上午 10:00

地    点：医学遗传学研究中心老楼五楼学术报告厅

Xiaojie Qiu，长春科技大学生物工程学士，华东师范大学生物信息学硕士，2018年6月在华盛顿大学获博士学位，博士期间研究方向为：1）通过单细胞测序数据重建细胞发育轨迹；2）解析细胞命运转变过程中的因果调控网络，目前已在Nature Methods 、Science、Cell Research、Plos One等国际权威杂志上发表SCI论文8篇。

Abstract：Development is commonly regarded as a hierarchical branching process. Single-cell genomics, single-cell RNA-seq (scRNA-seq) in particular, holds the promise to resolve the dynamics of this process. However, learning the structure of complex single-cell trajectories with multiple branches remains a challenging computational problem. In this seminar, I will present the toolkit, Monocle 2, which uses reversed graph embedding to reconstruct single-cell trajectories in a fully unsupervised manner. Monocle 2 learns an explicit “principal graph” that passes through the middle of the data as opposed to other ad hoc methods, greatly improving the robustness and accuracy of its trajectories. I will demonstrate that Monocle 2 is able to accurately reconstruct developmental trajectories for complicated systems, including haematopoiesis involving multiple different cell fates. I will also talk about recent developments of Monocle, Monocle 3, to analyze complex large cell atlas dataset with multiple developmental trajectories and loops.  When coupled with another statistical framework, BEAM (branch expression analysis modeling), Monocle 2 is able to detect genes specific to different developmental lineages. The unprecedented high resolution of the reconstructed developmental trajectories not only enables us to determine which genes are playing important roles at the critical time point of cell fate transition, but also to directly infer causal gene regulatory networks. To this end, I have been developing a new toolkit, Scribe, which applies novel information theory techniques to detect causal interactions responsible for fate transitions。

                                                                                                                                                                                                 中南大学医学遗传学研究中心

                                                                                                  中南大学湘雅医院精准分子医学研究所