SIAIS and iHuman Host Single Cell Genomics Symposium

ON2019-04-08TAG: ShanghaiTech UniversityCATEGORY: iHuman Institute

On March 23th, SIAIS and iHuman Institute successfully hosted the “Single Cell Genomics Symposium,” bringing together 100 people from universities and institutes around China including ShanghaiTech University, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ruijin Hospital, Shanghai General Hospital, Tongji University, Fudan University, and Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. 

Zhong Guisheng, assistant director of iHuman Institute and Lichun Jiang, director of SIAIS biomedical big data platform, hosted the symposium. iHuman Institute Executive Director Professor Liu Zhijie delivered the opening remarks. 

The one-day symposium was organized into three sections. In the section about “application of single cell genomics technology in biomedical studies,” SLST Vice-Dean Professor Luo Zhenge introduced how they dissected brain wiring using single cell transcriptomes. Peng Guangdun, principal investigator from Guangzhou Institute of Biomedicine of Health, CAS introduced the technology of spatial transcriptomes of single cell. In the section on “single cell data analysis,” SLST Assistant Professor Zhang Liye gave a systematic introduction to single cell data analysis. SIST Associate Professor Zheng Jie discussed the molecular mechanism of β cell dysfunction in type 2 diabetes by comparing the single cell transcriptomics data of β cell between type 2 diabetes patients and healthy people, and explained how his team simulated the process of β cell apoptosis in vitro. In the final section on “different technology platforms,” three companies introduced different single cell platforms, helping the audience gain a deeper understanding of the similarities and differences between them.

The symposium showed comprehensively how single cell genomics could play important roles in the biomedical field and was helpful in promoting communication and cooperation among different research groups.