“Comparative-omics strategies for understanding mammalian brain architecture and human brain specialization”
Single cell transcriptomic and epigenomic technologies are dramatically accelerating our understanding of brain cellular complexity. These technologies can be applied to any species including human, enabling a new comparative approach to understand conserved and divergent aspects of human brain cellular and molecular organization. We have developed a suite of techniques to study the molecular, anatomical and functional characteristics of neurons in mouse, monkey and human neurosurgically resected cortical tissues. In addition, single cell characterization of gene regulatory landscape allows the identification of cell type-specific enhancers that can drive selective gene expression using viral transduction. This talk will describe the creation of human and cross-species cell type classifications, generation of tools to target cell types across species, and the use of these tools to explore primate and human cortical specializations.
Background
Ed Lein is Senior Investigator at the Allen Institute for Brain Science and an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Washington. He received a B.S. in biochemistry from Purdue University and a Ph.D. in neurobiology from UC Berkeley, and performed postdoctoral work at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. He joined the Allen Institute in 2004 and has led the creation of large-scale gene expression atlases of the adult and developing mammalian brain as catalytic community resources, including the inaugural Allen Mouse Brain Atlas and developing and adult human and non-human primate brain atlases. Dr. Lein has driven a number of advances in using the tools of modern molecular genomics to study mammalian brain organization at the regional, cellular and functional brain level. He leads the Human Cell Types program at the Allen Institute, focused on creating a cellular atlas of the human brain, understanding conserved and divergent features of human cortex, developing tools for genetic access to specific cell types in non-genetic organisms including human, and understanding cellular and molecular consequences of brain diseases including Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Lein is a member of the NIH BRAIN Initiative Cell Census Network and the Human Cell Atlas.