Kun Zhang
Associate Professor
Department of Bioengineering
University of California, San Diego
Sequencing and Mapping of RNA Molecules in Human Adult Brain
A comprehensive characterization of transcriptional diversity and heterogeneity of the human cortex is crucial to understand its functions in healthy and disease conditions. The diversity and cellular states of the densely packed cellular network in the cortex can be accurately captured by the transcriptional activities of individual cells. An overarching goal is to establish a high-resolution three dimensional map of all transcriptional activities in the human cortex.
The NIH SCAP-T San Diego center is taking a single-nucleus transcriptome sequencing (SNTS) approach to systematically characterize the transcriptional diversity of single neuronal in human adult cortex. In addition, we are developing a highly multiplexed method for in situ mapping and quantification of RNA transcripts in human cortical sections in situ. In this talk, technical challenges in handle human post-mortem tissues, sequencing nuclear transcriptome in single neurons, as well as computational challenges in analyzing data from nascent transcripts will be discussed. Initial analysis of >4,000 sets of single-nucleus transcriptome data from six cortical areas, as well as maps of 250 genes in situ will be presented.
