Establishing single cell RNA-sequencing and ATAC-sequencing to decipher biological heterogeneity in blood cells.

Recent descriptions of the functional heterogeneity in normal and malignant blood cells has shifted our understanding of how single cells are subverted to drive cancer. The immune cell microenvironment has also been demonstrated to play a significant role driving malignant cell expansion, although the exact components are similarly plagued by functional and molecular heterogeneity. To design therapies for diseases of stem cell origin and to understand the cells of the tumour microenvironment, it is critical to understand this diversity at the single cell level. This bid focuses on understanding the complex biology of normal and malignant blood stem cells and mature immune effector cells by establishing new tools and techniques to study their cellular and molecular diversity. It will also establish new laboratory protocols and computational pipelines in the York Technology Facility which can be used by numerous other researchers and provided as an external service.