Understanding the Mysteries of the Cell: How Do Many Cell Types Arise from One Genome?

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Reception from 4 pm at the Atrium
Talk from 4:30 pm at the Auditorium

Abstract: Is the genome a biological computer code which controls human development in a deterministic fashion? In this talk we will explore to what extent the genome is a blueprint for an organism and what are some of the key open problems in interpreting the information content of the genome. Among these open problems are the fact that today it is impossible to predict the various cell types of an organism from the genome alone. This has motivated efforts to characterize the molecular composition of various cell types within humans and multiple model organisms, both by transcriptional and proteomic approaches. We used single cell transcriptomics to create a human reference atlas comprising more than one million cells from 24 different tissues and organs, many from the same donor. This atlas enabled molecular characterization of more than 400 cell types, their distribution across tissues, and tissue-specific variation in gene expression, and provides an experimental basis to understand the cell type diversity which can be generated from a single genome. We have trained large language models on this data to help understand the relationships between cell types and across evolutionary history.

Bio: Stephen Quake is Head of Science at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, where he oversees CZI’s science grant programs, technology development, and the CZ Biohub Network. He has received numerous awards for his contributions to science and is one of only two dozen scientists elected to all three National Academies. Steve also holds a faculty position at Stanford University, where he is the Lee Otterson Professor of Bioengineering and Applied Physics. Previously he was the founding co-president of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub (2016-2022), investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (2006-2016), and professor at the California Institute of Technology (1996-2005).