Inferring developmental programs from single-cell fate mapping

Datum

17.10.2013

Zeit

14:30 - 15:30

Sprecher

Thomas Höfer

Zugehörigkeit

Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum

Serie

IMB - Seminar

Sprache

en

Hauptthema

Biologie

Andere Themen

Biologie, Mathematik, Medizin, Informatik

Beschreibung

Proliferation, differentiation and death are fundamental cellular processes that shape development and responses to environmental challenges. Experimental observations made on the cell-population level cannot usually be attributed uniquely to these processes. For example, the increased frequency of a differentiation marker in a population could be due to selective growth or survival advantages of differentiated cells, arise from actual cell differentiation, or result from a combination of these processs. This problem can be addressed by recording the evolution of single cell-derived pedigrees in vitro, but such an approach is usually not feasible in vivo. In my talk, I will show that an ensemble of single-cell progenies recorded at one time point contains a statistical footprint of its proliferation and differentiation history, thus enabling the inference of underlying cellular programs and quantitative rates from in-vivo data. We have developed the corresponding mathematical framework for single cell-based fate mapping data of the T-cell response to infection. Our findings provide unprecedented insight into the generation of short-lived effector and long-lived memory T cells and predict that central memory T cells function as tissue stem cells of adaptive immunity. More generally, our results imply that phenotypic diversity can be generated by simple developmental rules.

Letztmalig verändert: 10.09.2013, 18:36:47