UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA

M O L E C U L A R & C O M P U TAT I O NA L B I O LO G Y
FAC U LT Y C A N D I DAT E S E R I E S

Daniel Wagner, PhD

from
Harvard Medical School
Department of Systems Biology
will present on

"Single-cell decomposition of
vertebrate cell fate hierarchies
and control logic”

Abstract: A fundamental motivation in developmental

Monday, February 4, 2019
2:00 pm to 3:00 pm
Ray R. Irani Hall
1050 Childs Way, RRI 101
Los Angeles, CA 90089-2910
For additional information,
contact:
Sergey Nuzhdin, PhD
snuzhdin@usc.edu
biology is to understand the detailed molecular
progression of cellular lineages, from pluripotency to
adulthood. Here, using zebrafish as a model, I
demonstrate how recent advances in high-throughput
single-cell transcriptomics can now facilitate unbiased
reconstruction of whole-embryo developmental fate
landscapes. This "landscape" view provides a
comprehensive molecular atlas of the emerging
vertebrate body plan, facilitating cell-by-cell or tissue-
by-tissue gene discovery efforts, and also enabling
quantitative whole-embryo mapping of mutant
phenotypes cell lineage relationships. I will discuss new
topological insights gained from this view of
development, new opportunities for decoding messy
"salt & pepper" fate specification events, and new
opportunities for comparative studies of cell fate control
mechanisms.